A Bat In Storybrooke
by Emersonian
Summary: An old foe of Killian arrives in Storybrooke to get his revenge on the latter. Killian tries to keep Emma out of it. Rumple and Belle are expecting a child who has inherited magic from the Dark One that will make the baby a terrible villain. In the past, Lieutenant Killian meets and befriends a special yet mysterious humanoid bat who lived among humans his entire life.
1. Chapter 1

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 1

Nighttime was covering the atmosphere in Storybrooke. People were going out for dinner at Granny's while others went home to bed. Mr. Gold had closed his pawnshop for the evening and was now returning home, where his wife Belle waited for him. Marco and his son Pinocchio were still working in their hardware store. David and Mary Margaret were in their apartment, watching over their baby son Neal sleeping cozily in his bed. Elsewhere, Regina and Robin were having a romantic walk on the coast. Emma Swan and her boyfriend, Killian Jones, were having a date at Granny's Dinner.

It was a regular evening for all the Storybrooke residents.

But unfortunately, something was approaching.

It was walking towards one of the hills in the forest that gave a view of the entire town. Weird chomping sounds were made as the thing walked to the top of the hill, where it stopped and watched the peaceful town from the darkness of the woods. The wind blew in its long, dark hair as it sniffed the air, searching for the scent of its enemy until he found it.

"There won't be anymore escaping this time, codfish," it growled. "This time, I _will_ kill you for good."

The moonlight shone on the creature. The reflected light gleamed on the peg leg that was on the spot where his right leg should have been. As the creature's fist tightened, bat wings emerged from his back, spreading themselves wide open, with wires and braces attached to the right wing due to its crippled status.

"I swear, codfish," the creature gritted its fanged teeth, "you _will_ die in my hands. In the hands of Fidget the bat."


	2. Chapter 2

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 2

"Thanks for going out with me on this date, Killian. I really appreciated it."

Killian and Emma were leaving Granny's diner as she said those words. It was 9:30 pm and the night was blowing a small, summer breeze in their faces. Emma's hair was slightly blown, giving her an enchanting appeal to Killian. He couldn't even remember Milah's hair blowing like this when they were pirates sailing on his ship, the JOLLY ROGER. If anybody told him almost two hundred fifty years ago that he'd fall in love with a woman ten times better than Milah, he would have made them walk the plank a few seconds later.

His heart sank suddenly when a new thought occurred to him at the same time. Killian tried to brush it off, but his guilt couldn't.

Emma seemed to have noticed that something wasn't quite right with Hook. "Hey, are you all right?" The sudden question broke off Killian from his thoughts with surprise.

"What? Oh, yes, love. I'm fine. I'm just… feeling a bit tired. I've had a long day. But the date was a delight."

Emma smiled and planted him a quick kiss on the lips. "Good. Oh, I wanted to say: I have to help my mom watch over my baby brother tomorrow afternoon. Think you can pick up Henry afterschool? I'm sure he'll like that."

"Gladly, love. Anything for you," Hook answered.

"Thanks. See you tomorrow."

Killian watched as Emma headed back to the Blanchard apartment in a hurry. His guilty thought took the privilege of coming back on his brain, stabbing daggers on his conscience.

 _If anybody told you that Fidget would return and get his revenge on you after all those years, what would you do? Run away again?_

Flashback: _The Enchanted Forest, year 1774, on the_ Jewel Of The Realm

The wind was blowing on the sails of the _Jewel Of The Realm_ as the Jones brothers were watching the horizon ahead of them. They were on a new mission assigned by their king.

"So what does his Majesty wish us to achieve this time, brother?" Lieutenant Killian Jones asked his elder brother, Captain Liam Jones.

"A diplomatic mission, Killian. For years, our country has been feuding with the empire of Aldorada. Our king and the sovereign of Aldorada have decided to complete a peace treaty that will end the feud. We are being sent as the executive diplomatic militants."

"I see. Yet, I've never heard of any empire called Aldorada."

"A very rich and powerful nation. Many other nations have killed themselves in order to conquer it, but to no avail."

"Rumors say that their military have been led by the Denada Cortés, a family of militants, for generations," a soldier cut in.

"Aldorada has never lost a single battle when a Denada Cortés led the troops," one carrying a barrel of water added.

"My cousin twice removed said that the current heir of the Denada Cortés family was ten times stronger than one army. Apparently he could knock down ten men with only one sweep of his swords," a cook retorted.

Captain Jones slammed the stirring wheel. "Silence! What kind of soldier relies on rumors?

"Rumors are like rum," his brother joined in. "They're bad form."

"Well said, brother. Now, everyone in position! Off we go to Aldorada!"

As everyone got ready, Killian began to question himself: if his soldiers believed in those rumors, then what were the chances that they might meet a dangerous enemy during their expedition.

"Belle! I'm home!" Mr. Gold locked the door behind him after he stepped inside his house. He had a normal day at work: in other words, nobody came to his pawnshop and most of the Storybrooke residents ignored him. After the incident involving the Author Isaac Heller and Emma briefly becoming the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin was grudged upon. At least Belle forgave him, especially after he got a light heart.

Yet, for some reason, Belle wasn't here to welcome him as she usually did whenever he got him.

"Belle? Are you here?"

Silence was in the house until Rumple could have sworn that he heard vomiting sounds coming from the bathroom upstairs. Worried for his wife, he ran up the staircase until he reached the bathroom door, which suddenly opened as Belle wobbled out, looking all dizzy. He quickly caught her before she could fall.

"Belle? Belle! What's wrong?" he asked, his voice full of worry.

"R…Rumple…I'm…"Belle stammered. "I'm pregnant. You're going to be a father again."

"Sleepy! Will you wake up for Heaven's sake?"

Leroy groaned as he tried to wake up his fellow dwarf, who fell asleep while driving, as usual. He shook Sleepy as much as he could until some dark shadow up ahead on the road caught his attention.

"Sleepy! Wake up or you'll hit that pedestrian!"

The dwarf let out a yawn as he slightly opened his eyes.

Then, suddenly, a scary face appeared in front of the car. A dark face with bat ears, messy raven black hair, golden eyes with dark red shadows around them, and the scariest of all, a mouth full of fangs as sharp as razors. The horrifying sight was scar enough to fully awaken Sleepy and cause him to steer the truck out of the road and into a tree. Smoke came out of the vehicle as the dwarfs hurried out of it. The sinister face was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell was that? It was like a monster to me!" Sleepy exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we'd better tell the others! We have to warn them that there's a new threat in Storybrooke!"

"Great! I bet Emma and her boyfriend Hook will fix the problem in no time!"

Little did the dwarfs no that, up above the trees, the shadow of a peg-legged, crippled, humanoid bat, was listening to the conversation with interest.

"You really are predictable, codfish. There's always a girl in your life. At least this time, I know who I should aggress first in order to get to you," it chuckled.


	3. Chapter 3

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 3

Mr. Gold sat on a chair at the hospital the next morning, fidgeting his fingers as Dr. Whale was checking on Belle in the next room.

This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be a father again. After all the things he'd been through with his own son Baelfire and his own father, Rumple had come to the conclusion that no matter what he did, no matter how much he tried to do the impossible, he'd always end up as a coward and fail on his duties towards his family. He even couldn't protect his own grandson Henry while trying to kill him at the same time when they were in Neverland.

Dr. Whale came out alone and motioned Mr. Gold to come inside with him. The latter nervously followed him inside, where Belle was waiting for him, sitting next to a computer that showed a scanned image of a fetus.

"Well, Mr. Gold. I'm pleased to tell you that your wife is indeed pregnant. The gender is undetermined yet, but it's in a healthy condition." The doctor smiled as Belle went to hug her husband.

"Rumple! Can you believe it? We're going to be parents!" Belle cried with enthusiasm.

Mr. Gold gave an uneasy smile. His wife noticed it and a concerned look appeared on her once happy face. Dr. Whale took the liberty of cutting in: "I must tell you though that we noticed something abnormal with the baby."

This got the attention of the future parents. "What do you mean?" Mr. Gold asked.

Dr. Whale nervously clasped his hands together. "Well, you see, the examination revealed that not only is the child going to be born in two months from now, but it's also been a month since Belle started being pregnant. Therefore, it results with a pregnancy of only four months. Yet, a usual pregnancy period lasts nine months at the maximum until the fetus is well developed and this one is in the developed status of a 5-month old fetus, despite being in its mother's womb for barely two months."

"I…I don't understand. How is that possible?" Belle looked at her husband.

Mr. Gold's uneasy face got filled with dark anxiety.

"It only occurs when the child in question is born from the union of a mortal and an _immortal_. If that's the case, our child is the child of the immortal I once was… the Dark One. And the chances that it might inherit the Dark One's dark magic are high."

In the meantime, at the Storybrooke Public School, Mary Margaret's class was working with a class full of 3rd graders today. Each of the eldest students was assigned to one 3rd grader in order to help and tutor the young one in a field where he or she wasn't so good.

When Mary Margaret and the 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Robert, assigned Henry Mills to help a little named Rosetta Anubisia Romanov in Social Studies, Henry could have sworn that he saw all the 3rd graders looking at him like he was being buried alive.

Nothing seemed wrong about Rosetta to Henry. Sure, she had black hair with strokes of red, brown sand skin, and cyan blue eyes, but this was Storybrooke. Strange people were everywhere. However, Henry eventually found out that Rosetta was singled out from her peers due to her "abnormal habit of pretention" and thus needed a psychiatrist; thanks to his grandmother, Henry in Social Studies will tutor Rosetta instead of going to Dr. Hopper's office.

He learned of her "abnormal habit" in Study Hall, while he was helping her understand the conflict between the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. Rosetta was trying to pay attention to what Henry was saying, but she couldn't help fidgeting and nervously clutching a notebook other than the one she brought for the tutoring in her hand.

"If you want, we can stop for today. I think we've done enough," Henry told her gently.

The little girl froze. "I'm sorry, Henry! I didn't mean to be rude! I… I just have a hard time focusing nowadays."

"Family issues at home?"

"No, nothing like that," Rosetta hesitated. "More like… assumptions."

Henry looked at her in a confused way. "I don't understand."

Rosetta trembled as she passed the book she was clinging on to Henry. "Please look at it first before you call me crazy."

Henry glanced at the 3rd grader before he opened the book and skimmed the pages, full of crayon, pencil, and marker drawings. However, Henry stopped at almost each page when he saw their contents. They were showing past and present events that occurred to everyone in Storybrooke, just like in his book ONCE UPON A TIME. He saw an image of Rumplestiltskin, his grandfather, ripping out the heart of his ex-wife Milah in front of Killian. He saw another one where his maternal grandparents, Snow White and Prince Charming, in front of a tree with Maleficent, Ursula, and Cruella De Vil.

It went on: the casting of the dark curse, the meeting of his parents, Regina adopting Henry, Regina squeezing the heart of Sheriff Graham, Henry falling under the spell of the poisoned apple turnover, and more.

Two of them scared him the most: when Peter Pan tried to rip Henry's shadow on the _Jolly Roger_ when they were escaping Neverland and Emma Swan being possessed by the darkness of the Dark One.

"You're a seer?" Henry couldn't believe the words he just said.

Rosetta slightly shrugged. "It's mostly things that I see whenever I don't want to. Like during class time, or a quiz, or when my parents argue. Whenever something bad is about to happen, I see something about the past, the present, or the future."

"Did you see something then?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

She grabbed her notebook and opened on a new page and started a new drawing. Henry watched as she moved her pencil back and forth until she was done. The drawing represented an angry Killian holding a bleeding Emma as a bat-like shadow loomed over them.

"I saw an old enemy of Killian Jones and he's in Storybrooke right now, searching for him in order to get his revenge, even if it means killing anybody in his way. And his name is… Fitzgerald Denada Cortés, also known as… Fidget the Bat."


	4. Chapter 4

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 4

Flashback: _The Enchanted Forest, year 1774, at the port of Aldorada_

"Land Ho!"

The crew gathered in excitement on the main deck in order to get a view of Aldorada.

It was nothing like the crew had ever seen: from miles away, you could see the big Renaissance mansions, gardens, towers, and the enormous royal castle that formed this big city. A small market could be seen on the docks, where a crowd was waiting for them, cheering and waving the Aldorada flag and a white, peace flag at the Jewel Of The Realm.

"Mates, we have arrived at the renowned Aldorada," Liam announced. "Remember, we are representing our country as we go on this diplomatic mission. So be in your best form and attitude."

"Yes, captain!" the crew cried

"Get ready to pull the anchor and get into position!" Killian ordered as the crew dispersed. Killian went to join his brother at the front of the ship as they watched the crowded port getting closer and closer.

"This is a great moment for us and history," the latter patted Killian on the shoulder. "Let's enjoy it!"

The crew got out of the ship as soon it accosted on the catwalk. Numerous citizens came to welcome the newcomers, including a lot of nobility, middle-class, and peasants, all looking well dressed. There was no doubt to Killian that this nation was very wealthy.

The crowd parted in order to make way for a few soldiers, led by two military officiates. For some reason, girly squeals were heard from the crowd, as the leaders got closer to the Jones brothers.

Liam started the introductions: "Greetings, Aldoradians. We are the diplomatic representatives of our King, and it is with great honor that we come here to your well-acclaimed country. I am Captain Liam Jones, leader of this fleet, and this here is my brother and second-in-command, Lieutenant Killian Jones."

Cheers were heard from both the crew and the Aldoradian crowds as the Jones brothers bowed to the main leader, a tall man in his late forties with black hair, grey eyes, a beard, and the black-and-purple Aldoradian military uniform, which was covered with at least 20 different medals. A sword was hung on the side of this man.

"The honor is also ours," the man replied. "I am the Hernan Denada Cortés, Head General of our nation's navy. And by my sides is my son, Aldorada's First Class Navy Sergeant… Fitzgerald Denada Cortés!" The last part was said in pride.

Cheers and girly squeals were heard from the Aldoradian crowd as the Sergeant bowed to the newcomers, who, unlike their hosts, were paralyzed by shock. For, unlike Hernan Denada Cortés, his son wasn't a human in a sergeant's uniform, but a creature with a black bat's head, crowned with a raven black ponytail, golden eyes, and a fanged mouth, in a sergeant's uniform. In other words, the renowned Denada Cortés son, who was said to be able to knock down ten men with only one sweep of his sword, wasn't a man but a beast.

"Like my father, the honor and pleasure is also mine," the creature said. "I'm First Class Navy Sergeant Fitzgerald Denada Cortés, best known as 'Fidget the Bat', and I am looking forward to our new alliance with great anticipation."


	5. Chapter 5

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 5

"You saw _what_?"

It was around 1pm at the sheriff's station that Emma said this. Leroy and Sleepy had just told her about the strange appearance they saw last night that caused Sleepy's truck to crash into a tree.

"I told you, Emma," Leroy agitatedly groaned, "that we saw a scary pedestrian with a scary bat face that made a scary jump in front of Sleepy's truck and scared the shit out of us and caused us to crash into a tree before disappearing, just like that!"

Emma leaned on her chair, with a thoughtful look on her face. Sure, even after spending at least 3 years in Storybrooke, the numerous amounts of strange occurences like evil fairytale characters who were supposed to be good in the stories she read as a little girl, wicked witches, ice manipulators, demon like creatures that fed on darkness, and authors who wanted to change the roles of villains with those of heroes, Emma was still surprised by the what Leroy told her. After all, she practically spent 28 years of her life in the modern world, out of the Dark Curse, and away from the actual existence of fairytales and magic.

"What's going on? Did I miss the action?"

Hook came in, looking with confusion at the nervous faces of Leroy and Sleepy and the concerned one of Emma.

"A public menace report, Killian. Leroy says that they saw a menace in the outskirts of Storybrooke."

"What kind of menace?"

"A 'bat-headed' menace, according to Leroy."

 _A 'bat-headed'_ _menace._ The words froze Killian, sending bangs in his head. _It couldn't be_ , he thought. _It couldn't be…_

"Killian, are you OK?" Emma's voice sent him back to Earth.

"Sorry, love. I'm just as surprised as you are. I've never heard about a 'bat-headed' menace before," Killian quickly lied. He turned to Leroy: "Exactly where did you see the menace?"

"On the road," Leroy answered. "Not two far from where we saw Elsa the first time she came to Storybrooke."

Emma got up from her desk and grabbed her jacket. "I'll go investigate. Killian, will you go check on Henry a little bit earlier? I want to make sure that he doesn't get hurt if the "menace" is very dangerous."

"Sure, love."

They split up and left the station. However, while Emma was following the dwarves to where the attack occurred, Killian dashed all the way to Mr. Gold's pawnshop, where he pushed the door open with a BANG!

"Crocodile! I need to…what is going on here?"

He was witnessing a frantic Belle trying to calm down Mr. Gold, who was turning his shop upside down and searching throughout every single book he had like an insane prisoner trying to escape his cell.

Belle turned towards Killian with a surprised look on her face. "Oh, hello, Killian. What brings you here?

"I need to talk to your husband."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm busy right now!" Rumple grumbled as he skimmed through another stack of books.

"He's just a bit nervous because he's going to be a parent again," Belle gently told Killian.

"Am not!"

"What? Belle, are you pregnant?" Killian said in surprise.

"Yes."

"Congratulations, dear. I'm sure Henry will be glad to hear that he's going to have a new relative. You should hear him when he does the joke of ' _being-twelve-years-older-than-my-own uncle.'_ " Killian and Belle chuckled at the mere thought.

"Well, unfortunately, he might not be pleased when he finds out that his future relative will be another speck of dust for our town's peace," Mr. Gold retorted as he finally found what he was looking for: a giant manuscript with a yin-yang symbol on the cover.

"I'm surprised you aren't happy about having a new child, crocodile. Has the death of Baelfire really let you _that_ down?"

"Um, actually, he's actually nervous because our child was conceived in my womb while Rumple was still the Dark One," Belle hesitantly said.

Killian's brief sympathy faded. "What's wrong about being born from the Dark One? Aside from being related to the parental darkness, of course."

Rumple opened on a page, which he showed to the pirate and his wife. It depicted an illustration of a dark figure holding a baby entrapped in a circle of black flames. "This is the problem: The Dark One is an immortal being, and like other immortals, should it conceive with a mortal, a demigod will be born. Usually, a demigod isn't very great news because it's more powerful than those who surround him or her. And the worst demigods in all the realms are those born from _evil_ immortals."

Belle stammered as she realized what he meant: "And if our child is born from the Dark One…"

"It will be born with evil potential that's ten times worse than any other villain that has walked on any realm, including the savior Swan when she briefly became the Dark One."

Killian shuddered at the thought of the past six weeks having to protect Storybrooke from an evil Emma while trying to save her at the same time from the darkness of the Dark One that was within her. Seeing her turning into a villain would always haunt him. But if the crocodile's child would be _ten times worse than even Emma…_

"Enough of this," Mr. Gold cut in. "Why are you here, Hook."

"Remember my 'old association?' Fitzgerald?" Killian asked.

Mr. Gold and Belle looked at him with curiosity. "You mean the peg-legged Batrishan with the crippled wing who was raised by humans in Aldorada and has vowed to get revenge on you for ' _ruining his life_?'" Mr. Gold did air quotes as he said the last three words of his sentence.

Killian nodded. "Yes, and from what I've heard, he might be in Storybrooke right now. I need to know if Fitzgerald is really here so that I can deal with him without Emma knowing it."

"Why won't you tell her?" Belle asked. "She's good at tracking people and she could easily get to him with her magic."

"I don't want her to be involved. Fitzgerald swore that he'd kill me if it's the last thing he does, even if he has to kill those that I care for. You can't imagine how he gloated in front of my face when he watched Milah die."

"He's right, Belle, and I can say that from experience. Plus, much to your misfortune, Hook, Fitzgerald has prepared for the day he'd get to kill you and believe me, you won't be able to fight him through sword fighting just like you did during your last two confrontations."

"Is there any chance that Emma won't be able to track him?" Killian asked nervously.

"She has zero chances of finding the Batrishan. For centuries, not even the greatest mortal hunters or the best sorcerers, like I once was, were able to find him. He is like an unwanted thread of silk in a patch of thousands of silky threads."

"Well, that's a relief," Killian sighed in relief as he quickly hurried out of the store. "Thanks again, crocodile! And congratulations on your new child with Belle, despite its possible darkness!"

"Uh…OK," the couple said in unison as they silently watched the pirate run out into the street.

"So who is this Fitzgerald exactly, Rumple?" Belle asked her husband.

Rumple glanced at his wife. "He's a messed up creature who has history with the pirate long before I even became the Dark One.

If Killian or the Golds had noticed at all, they would have realized that Fitzgerald was spying on them with a telescope from inside the Storybrooke clocktower.

Personally, Fitzgerald respected Rumplestiltskin, especially ever since the latter crushed Milah's heart in front of the codfish, breaking both his heart and hand. However, if Killian was allies with the Dark One, then there would be a problem with obtaining his revenge. Fidget needed to get to Killian without involving the Dark One. But how?

"Henry, why can't we wait until school's over to search up on Fidget the Bat?"

The voice of a little girl mentioning his name caught his attention. "Say what now?" he asked himself. Quietly and without making a noise, he peeked through the opening of the clocktower and look down to the sidewalk. He saw a teenage boy accompanied by a girl much younger than him approaching the door of the library beneath the tower where he was hiding. Fidget started to become suspicious, especially when the scent of the children reached his nose.

 _Impossible_! The girl had the scent of a demigod!

"Because, Rosie, if my mom's boyfriend is in trouble, like you predicted than we got to do something about it!" the boy exclaimed.

 _The boy's mother's boyfriend in trouble? The girl predicting it?_ Fidget thought with confusion until the scent of the boy reached his nose.

GREAT ASHIVA! The Batrishan jumped at the realization. THE SCENT OF RUMPLESTILTSKIN'S BLOOD WAS COVERING HALF OF THE BOY'S SCENT! HE MUST BE THE DARK ONE'S RELATIVE!

Fidget bit his clawed hands at the thought of dealing with a relative of the Dark One, especially one as dangerous as Rumplestiltskin.

But then… he stopped biting his hands…and his nervous face was replaced with a malicious, fanged smile that would scare all children. Chuckling with evil glee, Fidget flew down the tower as quietly and as fast as he could.

For he had a plan.


	6. Chapter 6

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 6

Flashback: _The Enchanted Forest, year 1774, at a party in the castle of Aldorada_

A party hosted by the nation's ruler, Queen Florencia, celebrated the arrival of Aldorada's new allies.

It was one of those royal parties that Killian never believed he'd attend, with golden ballrooms and chandeliers, Chinese vases full of roses, buffets full of good-quality dishes, and dances. Many court's people where attending that party, with a majority of them being land owners or military official like the Denada Cortés.

Speaking of the Denada Cortés, Killian noticed that his brother didn't seem to have a good eye on the First Class Navy Sergeant as the latter was seen chatting with a few Aldoradian soldiers and at least 4 noblemen. They all seemed to have an amiable chat.

"The Sergeant doesn't seem trustworthy to me," Liam muttered to the Lieutenant.

"I don't understand what's wrong with you, Liam. You usually are the type to follow a code of honor about the essentials of good form, and here you are judging one of the militants of our King's newest allies merely because he looks different."

"Don't be ridiculous, Killian," the captain retorted. "Good form applies to humans and this sergeant _isn't_ human."

Killian looked in disbelief at his brother. "Honestly, Liam, you disappoint me. You taught me to be a just and fair-playing leader without excluding anybody in the crew. And here you are, acting all prejudiced because _one_ sergeant looks and might be different than others? I thought you were better than this." Before he could listen to his brother again, Killian went to join the group of chatting Aldoradians were Fitzgerald Denada Cortés was currently at.

The latter was actually the one to warmly start off with the conversation: "Ah, Lieutenant Killian Jones! What an honor to have you here! Please, do join us. We were just about to have a cup of our local sangria." The rest of the group excused themselves, thinking it might be best that the two officials conversed alone. Fitzgerald summoned a waiter, who served two cups of sangria to the lieutenant and the sergeant.

"Thank you, Sergeant," Killian raised his cup. "A toast for our new alliance?"

"A toast indeed," Fitzgerald agreed as his cup clanged with Killian's. "And please, there's no need to call me by my title, Killian. You may call me by my first name, Fitzgerald, or by my surname…Fidget."

"Are you sure that's all right with you? I wouldn't want to start off the alliance by the wrong foot."

"Absolutely. What could be a better way of starting a possible friendship?" Smiles grew on their faces as they raised their cups to their mouths.

This was the most confusing case Emma had ever dealt with.

She had followed Leroy and Sleepy to the crime spot where the ' _menace_ ' appeared. The truck was still there, crashed on the tree with dried leaked oil stained on the trunk. Aside from that, nothing else was to be seen. No tracks on the road, nothing stolen from the truck. Everything seemed normal.

The only thing that seemed odd to Emma was a circular dent on the truck's bonnet. It wasn't very deep, was perfectly circular with no jagged corners, and seemed large enough to fit only one heel.

"Was this dent already on your truck before last night's accident, Leroy?" Emma asked as she took a picture of it with her phone.

"Emma, I've had that truck for almost thirty-one years. If I'd seen that dent, I would have taken it to the garage in Storybrooke in order to fix it," Leroy snorted.

Emma gave a hopeless sigh as she put her cell phone back in her pocket. The ' _menace_ ' was clever enough to not leave any particular behind that would give Emma a hint of where he or she might be hiding and a car dent wasn't enough.

"I'll go analyze at the sheriff's station. In the meantime, stay here in case the culprit comes back here."

"You got it," Leroy said as Emma got inside her car and drove back to town.

Henry took a quick glimpse inside Storybrooke's library as he opened the door. Nobody was there.

"The coast's clear. Let's go!"

He and Rosetta sneaked inside, carefully closing the door behind, hoping that nobody would see them.

"Henry, I don't like this," Rosetta whimpered as she clung to the boy.

"Don't worry. I told Mrs. Roberts that I was taking you to the nurse because you didn't feel so well; that way, they won't be worried about our absence while we're here," he reassured her.

"It's not our absence or even or parents finding out that we're ditching class in order to find information on Hook's old foe," Rosetta insisted. "It's the quietness. It's as silent as a grave here. I can't even hear the air vent running."

Henry paused, realizing that she was right: sure, the library was quiet when nobody was here, but even the air vent didn't seem to be running. Everything was quiet, _a little too quiet_. Even the books seemed stiff to Henry.

Nevertheless, Henry wasn't backing down. Hook needed help, and it wasn't the creepy silence of a library that would stop him.

He put is hands on Rosetta's shoulders and looked at her cyan eyes full of fear. "I promise, Rosetta, I won't let anything bad happen to you. Everything's going to be OK."

"Do you promise on the River Styx?"

"Sorry?"

"If you swear on the River Styx, then you can't break your oath. Do you promise on the River Styx that you'll keep yours?"

Henry hesitated at first but finally agreed: "I swear on the River Styx that I won't let anything bad happen to you, Rosetta Anubisia Romanov."

Rosetta smiled, reassured, and straightened herself. "Then let's get started!"

The children went through the books, hoping to find a clue that would help them.

"Do you anything about Fidget the Bat that might help us in here?" Henry asked his friend.

Rosetta stopped to concentrate until she found an answer: "He have to look at two books that are in this library: _Batrishans: An Ancient Species_ and _Aldoradian History_."

"Batrishans? Aldorada?" Henry looked puzzled. "What does it mean?"

"Batrishans are the humanoid bat species where Fidget gets his main origins. They used to be an amazing ancient civilization full of arts and sciences that lasted for generations. Unfortunately, a god for apparently unleashing his wrath, which usually doesn't sound like them at all, decimated them. Nobody has ever seen a Batrishan ever again."

"But Hook did. He knew Fidget. So…Fidget must be the last of his kind."

"Exactly. When he was still a newborn, he was somehow spared and protected by another god who took him away from his birthplace, the Batrishan Sanctuary, and delivered at the front door of St. Alejandro's Chapel in the human empire of Aldorada, where a couple of Aldoradian noblemen, the Denada Cortés, found him and adopted him, baptizing him Fitzgerald Denada Cortés, and raised him as their own son."

Henry held back tears. "So that's how he knew Hook? Because Fidget was raised by humans?"

"Well, actually, he…I FOUND ONE OF THE BOOKS!" Rosetta pointed at red, thick book, on the shelf full of encyclopedias, with the golden, printed letters ALDORADIAN HISTORY on it. She went to grab the book…

That's when a black, clawed hand, accompanied by the scariest, bat face ever, emerged from behind the bookshelf, knocking down all the books on its way as it grabbed Rosetta by the arm.

Henry made a run towards Fidget as he restrained Rosetta with one arm, causing her to cry in pain due to his brutal force. The peg-legged Batrishan was too quick for Henry: with one snap of his unoccupied fingers, he summoned pipes that hung from the ceiling to release themselves and intertwine around Henry's arms like snakes, restraining him.

"Usually, I would gladly talk about the story of my life, especially with people who know a lot about me," Fidget said as he unsheathed a silver sword with an ebony handle and pressed it under Rosetta's chin, "but I'm in the middle of obtaining the revenge that I've been desiring for centuries and I can't ruin it."

"Let us go!" Henry retorted as he struggled through his tight restrains. "You won't get away with it if you kill us…Fitzgerald Denada Cortés!"

Fidget merely chuckled. "Oh, I'm not planning on killing you yet, you and your demigod friend…descendant of Rumplestiltskin the Dark One!"

Henry froze in shock. "How on earth did you know I was Rumplestiltskin's grandson?"

"He scented our presence when we arrived," Rosetta whimpered as Fidget tightened his grasp on her and started to press the blade of his sword harder under Rosetta's chin, causing her to start bleeding.

"Indeed I did," Fidget replied. "The Dark One's smell covers half of your body scent. Now, I'll only start killing you too, starting with the demigod here, unless you cooperate and do exactly as I say, Henry. Don't forget the promise you made on the River Styx."

Henry growled in anger. Now he understood why Fidget was a danger to Hook and everyone: his thirst for revenge made him go to the point where he'd be willing to force a child, who made an unbreakable oath, to help him in his evil scheme unless the child wanted to watch his friend perish at the hands of Fidget.

"All right. I'll do anything you ask me," Henry told the Batrishan, making the latter grin in delight as the beginning of his plan began to function.

"Excellent. Then let's get started, shall we?"


	7. Chapter 7

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 7

Killian sat on a bench right outside of the Storybrooke Public Library, waiting for Henry. The pirate was hoping to talk to Henry about his problem with Fitzgerald without Emma knowing as soon as possible. Plus share the news about the crocodile's future child, minus the possibility of the baby becoming a horrible villain.

The school bell rang. Killian watched as numerous children got out of the building, all eager that school was over, hopping on the school bus or rushing to embrace their parents who came to pick them up. Just watching those kids being hugged by their parents after school was over made Killian envious: he never got the opportunity to be picked up after school by his father when he was a young boy. After his father abandoned him, Killian spent the rest of his childhood in the same military boarding school where Liam attended when he was Killian's age until he reached the proper age to be drafted in the army as a private. The younger Jones never knew what it was like to be hugged by your parent who came to bring you home after school and have a happy conversation of how your day was and guess what I made for you for dinner tonight.

Seeing those happy families gave Killian heartache.

"Hi, Hook!"

The pirate looked up to see Henry in front of him, backpack in hand and a toothy grin on his face. He gave Killian a hug as the pirate rose up.

This confused Killian: Henry had never given him a hug _at all_. They mostly gave each other friendly slaps on the back or a 'high-five', as the people in this realm did. But there have been no hugs between the pirate and the savior's son.

"Henry, are you all right, mate?" he asked, concerned.

"Of course I am!" the boy said gleefully. "Why?"

"You seem…unusually jumpy. And you've never given me a hug before."

Henry said nothing until he recovered. "Sorry, Hook. I've just a great day at school today and I can't wait to spend the rest of the afternoon with you."

"Oh, OK." Killian arched an eyebrow. "By the way, your grandfather Rumplestiltskin and Belle are having a baby."

"Really? That's amazing! I'll have another uncle or maybe an aunt that's thirteen years younger than me!"

Killian chuckled at Henry's enthusiasm. "Sure, mate. How do you feel about a ride on the _JOLLY ROGER_?"

"I'd love to!"

The two of them walked to the docks; with Killian unaware that, deep in Henry's chest, his heart wasn't there.

Deep down in the cave bellow Storybrooke's Library, where an endless abyss seemed to lead to a fiery end below the Earth's layers, Fidget unleashed an evil snicker. He was sitting on a chair on a rocky platform as he watched the scene between the codfish and the Dark One's grandson, laughing at the beginning of his plan's success as he held a golden heart in his hands: Henry's heart.

" ' _How do you feel about a ride on the JOLLY ROGER! I'd love to!_ ' Don't I just love it how my things are going according to my ultimate design!" he continued laughing. "And with the heart of Rumplestiltskin's grandson, which happens to be the heart of the truest believer, things are getting better!"

"I still don't get it. How did you manage to grab Henry's heart out of his chest despite its magical protection? Even your former mentor Cora wasn't even able to pull out Henry's mother's heart out."

Fidget stopped laughing and turned towards a cage that was dangling a few feet above the platform, easy enough for a standing person to grab it with his hands, where Rosetta was locked up. The Batrishan held her captive in case Henry decided to turn against him. The mention of his former magic mentor got his attention.

"Simple, really," Fidget told his prisoner. "I just happened to have the ability of ripping out anybody's heart, magic protection or not. I just didn't know how to do it until Queen Cora taught me how to rip out hearts during my apprenticeship in magic."

"Swordsmanship, cleverness, stealth, magic, and black pyrokinesis," Rosetta listed. "You prepared well for your confrontation with Hook."

"Indeed. And the codfish will fall into my deadly trap, hook, line, and sinker."

"Shame, really." Rosetta smirked at Fidget. "If you hadn't been so foolish all these years and actually listened to him during that horrible day, you wouldn't be at each others throats. You'd still be friends. But instead, you blame him for ruining the life that you ruined yourself!"

Fidget glared at the demigod, who smirked when she noticed how hard it hit him. Then, in a flash, he dashed towards the cave and shook it, causing Rosetta to fall on one side and get smacked on the face by her captor. His clawed sunk in her skin, causing her cheek to bleed.

"KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT ON THE MATTER, UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO HIT YOU ON THE EYEBALLS NEXT!" Fidget howled at her. "UNDERSTOOD?" Rosetta whimpered as she put her hand on her bleeding cheek.

Fidget sighed in exasperation as he summoned Henry's heart elsewhere and summoned chains on Rosetta's wrists before he opened the cage and forced the terrified child out of it. Saying nothing at first, he rested one hand under Rosetta's chin and pulled it up in order for the girl to look at him in his golden eyes, which had small crimson irises in them, making Fidget's glare even scarier for Rosetta.

"Let's make it clear," he said. "You and Henry cooperate just as I want you to, Killian dies, I get my revenge, you go back to your families, and everyone forgets what happened when I leave this town for good. It will be like nothing ever happened. You won't even remember me. Are we clear at this point?"

"Y…Yes," Rosetta whimpered through a nod.

Her captor gave her an evil, fanged grin. "That's a good girl." Just for the sake of teasing the child, he bent down and kissed her bleeding cheek, causing her cuts to fade away.


	8. Chapter 8

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 8

"Rumple, we need to talk." In Mr. Gold's office right behind his pawnshop, Belle stopped in front of his desk to face her husband, who had his thoughts elsewhere.

" I don't think you should no more about the pirate and his rival," Mr. Gold said. "That story is…"

"It's not about them," Belle interrupted. "It's about our baby."

Rumple froze at the last word. "What about it?"

"Don't play stupid with me again, Rumple. You aren't happy about the fact that I'm pregnant and I know it has nothing to do about its possibility of being evil. So what is it?"

Rumple only retorted: "I don't want to talk about it."  
"Too bad. Because I not moving until you tell me the truth." Belle crossed her arms and tapped her foot on the ground, making it sound like a ticking clock. Her attitude made Rumple agitated until he couldn't take it anymore. "All right! It's because of Baelfire and my father! After my father abandoned me, I tried to avoid being the parent he was to me when I raised Baelfire with no avail. No matter what I tried to be a good parent, I was just a shadow in my son's life. Now he's dead and I'm about to have a possibly dangerous child with you, whom I was even a coward towards your love. I'M JUST AFRAID OF BEING A BAD PARENT AGAIN!"

Rumple began crying as he slammed his head on his desk. Touched by the truth in his words, Belle went to comfort her husband with a hug. "Oh Rumple…"

Their moment was interrupted when they heard the bell of the shop's door ring. "That's odd," Mr. Gold said as he dried his tears. "I could have sworn that I locked the door earlier today."

"We'd better see what this is about." The Golds started heading out of the office until they were blocked by a peg-legged humanoid bat with a handicapped wing holding a sword that he used to menace the Golds in one hand and the golden heart of the truest believer, Henry, in the other.

" I would stay put, if I were you, Lord Rumplestiltskin, unless you want me to harm your wife and crush your grandson's heart," Fitzgerald said calmly as they watched him in surprise. "Believe me. I know what it's like to lose those you love and I don't think you want to see this happening to you today."

Flashback: _Back in Aldorada, year 1774_

As the party flew on during the night, Killian and Fitzgerald had been chatting all evening, sharing stories and experiences, and bonding as time flew.

"Honestly, Killian, you really have an amazing life full of adventures," Fitzgerald said in awe.

"Surely not as great as yours," the lieutenant laughed. "Stories say that your sword skills have led Aldorada to endless victories. You're practically a legend."

The Aldoradian Sergeant smiled, revealing some fangs. "I appreciate it. Although, to be honest, I owe it all to my father: he was the one who helped me pursue my dream of following in his footsteps and becoming a soldier like him. I'd be nowhere without him."

Killian gave a warm, but sad smile all of a sudden.

"Are you alright, Killian?"

"I am. It's just…you're lucky to have been blessed with a father who supports you very much despite your…differences. Mine abandoned me when I was younger despite our close relationship, leaving me with just my brother Liam, who was hardly around me until I joined the military," Killian said sadly.

The Batrishan looked in pity at the lieutenant and held the latter's shoulder in comfort as they walked near an open window that showed the ocean gleaming from the moonlight.

"I'm sorry, Killian," Fitzgerald told him with honest sympathy. "I know what it's like to feel abandoned…"

Killian looked at his friend. "You do?"

"Yes. I was abandoned and found in front of a chapel when I was barely a week old. If my father and mother, may she rest in peace, hadn't wanted to adopt me when they found me there, who knows what would have happened to me then?"

"You don't have the foggiest idea of who your actual parents are?"

"Alas, no. The only truths I know is that I am apparently born from within the Batrishan priests, the leaders of my people, and that I might be the only remaining survivor of a genocide caused by an angry god that killed all of my people. Plus, as a coincidence, I was found at the footsteps of St Alejandro's Chapel a few hours after the news of the Batrishan genocide reached Aldorada and twelve hours after my adoptive parents lost _their_ son William when he died of childbirth."

"I'm so sorry, Fitzgerald. I had no idea. It must be hard for you."

"It is. But I have a family that genuinely loves me, friends who appreciate me, and a country to live for. What more can I ask for? Plus, I have this as a memento." He pulled out something from underneath his collar: a golden medallion with a depiction of a Batrishan with four arms summoning fire as smaller Batrishans kneeled before him.

"What is it?" Killian looked at the medallion in curiosity.

"My birth medallion. From what my parents learned from Aldoradian mages, my people wore medallions based on their social ranks, whether they were artisans, blacksmiths, healers, etc. This is the one that the Batrishan priests and their children wore: a golden medallion of Ashiva, their deity of balance. It was around my neck when my parents found me." He tucked it back under his collar.

"You've had a tough life," Killian concluded.

"Well…"

"FIDGET!" a voice squealed in delight.

The men looked to see a young woman, dress in an orange gown, with her golden hair tied up with sparkly blue ribbons and her green eyes sparkling in delight as she ran to embrace Fitzgerald.

"Isabella! What a pleasure to see you…"the Navy Sergeant said until she cut him off with a kiss, causing Killian to turn his head with both discomfort and amusement.

"Easy there, Isabella," Fitzgerald said as he gently pulled away from the gentlewoman and motioning towards Killian. "We have company."

"Oh, I'm sorry love," she bowed her head in embarrassment towards Killian.

"Allow me to do the introduction. Isabella, this is my friend Lieutenant Killian Jones from the kingdom of your mother's latest ally. Killian, this is Isabella, daughter of Queen Florencia, princess of Aldorada… and my beloved fiancée."


	9. Chapter 9

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 9

"What have you done with my grandson?" Mr. Gold growled when he saw Henry's heart in Fidget's hand.

"I pulled out his heart, isn't it obvious?" Fidget snorted.

"But…I thought Regina put a protection spell in Henry so that he wouldn't get his heart pulled out ever again," Belle said in disbelief.

"I've spent years learning how to use and outwit magic. You seriously think that a little spell from the Evil Queen will stop me?"

Rumple tried to grab the heart from Fidget's hand, but the latter was too quick for him and managed to kick him on the stomach with his peg leg, making Rumple fall to the ground and scream in pain as he held on to his stomach.

"RUMPLE!" Belle cried as she rushed to her husband. "Rumple! Talk to me!"

"So it's true, then," Fidget said in disbelief as the Golds turned to face him. "I almost didn't believe the rumors about the Dark One being gone, but turns out they were true. The crocodile that the codfish loathes so much is nothing but a softie without magic anymore."

"What do you want?" Rumple snapped in pain.

"You mean what I _wanted_. I wanted to strike a bargain with you, but since you're useless, I guess I'll just go ahead and crush the boy's heart…"

"WAIT!"

Fidget turned towards Belle, who interrupted him.

"If we promise to stay out of your way and say nothing about it to anybody, will you promise not to crush Henry's heart?"

"Ironically, that's almost the exact bargain I wanted to make, only I also want the Skull on that counter over there." He pointed towards one of the counters full of clocks minus a white skull with carved jewels on the bone. "I get both the skull and your complete neutrality and silence, and you can rest assured that your grandson doesn't get killed. Do we agree on the River Styx?"

"My husband and I agree on the River Styx," Belle said as she handed the skull over to Fidget who gave an evil grin to Rumplestiltskin.

" Nice wife you have here, ex-Dark One. Do make sure that she doesn't give bad nutrients to your future child," he said mockingly.

As Belle went back to her husband, Fidget summoned a magical sphere showing Henry with Killian on the JOLLY ROGER as the latter began to say: "Henry, I needed to talk to you about something. It concerns an old acquaintance of mine…). Bringing the heart of the boy close to his lips, he commanded: "Henry, excuse yourself from the codfish by telling him that you wanted to go check on our little friend and see if she's alright. Do otherwise and you know what happens."

The Golds stare in disbelief as Henry in the sphere said: "Hook? I'm sorry but I realized that I forgot to check up on Rosetta."

"Who?" Hook asked.

"Rosetta. She's a 3rd grader I have to tutor in Social Studies for Mary Margaret's class. She wasn't feeling well today and I thought I'd go check up on her and see if she's alright."

"That's very thoughtful of you, mate. I'll let your mother know about it."

"OK. Tell her I'll make sure I come home before dinnertime." The boy and the pirate made a few goodbyes before Henry left the ship and started muttering to his captor through the magic: "You didn't want him to tell me about you, didn't you?"

"Unless you want me to torment your little friend, I highly recommend you don't talk back at me. And while you're at it, make a stop at Granny's and make an order to go. Tell them you want a double order of what your little friend usually gets here plus a cup of dark coffee. Understood?"

Henry nodded as Fidget said: "Excellent" and summoned away the sphere, the skull, and the heart.

"How could you?" Rumple asked the Batrishan in disbelief. "Not only do you threaten my grandson but you also blackmail him with an innocent child who had nothing to do with it?"

Fidget said nothing as he made his way to the front door and opened it.

"Remember our bargain," he simply said as he flew away, leaving the Golds in dead silence.

Down in Fidget's underground lair, Rosetta trembled in her cage as her captor came back and installed the jeweled skull from Mr. Gold's shop and a jagged dagger on a table. She watched as he formed a circle on top of the skull with a knife and cracked it out. Jewels fell everywhere as Fidget took out a hand-sized vial full of crimson liquid from the skull.

"You got poison," Rosetta said as Fidget summoned a box and put the vial in it.

"Just one of the ingredients I need." He summoned the box away and used his magic to open Rosetta's cage. The little girl watched in terror as he pointed at the table and told her to come here. Fearing to live again the wrath he unleashed a few hours ago and what came after it, she obeyed him and got out of her cage, slowly walking towards the table.

"Sit," Fidget said, still pointing at the table.

"But…the table's too tall for me," Rosetta whispered.

Realizing she was right, the Batrishan grabbed her by the sides and pulled her up until she was sitting on the table and looking at Fidget's face from the same level.

"There are two reasons why I'm doing this," Fidget explained as he grabbed the dagger. "One: it's a punishing reminder of your recent behavior. So we're going to do a punishing process called the Prometheus Punishment." He then grabbed Rosetta's collar. "Can you guess why?"

"Because you're going to do it everyday?" Rosetta asked in shock. Her eyes widened when she saw that he was using the dagger to cut of the fabric from her collar, revealing her hollow neck. She quickly covered her neck with one hand as he held her cheek and started giving her cuts throughout the face and under her chin.

"Correct. Except I'll be doing it whenever I feel like it." He forced Rosetta's hand away from her neck and proceeded into placing some small cuts on it. "And the second reason is that I want a bloody appetizer before Henry brings our dinner here. Now stay put and let me eat in peace." He threw away the dagger and made chains appear on Rosetta in order to maintain her as he feasted on her blood. He pressed his lips on the little girl's forehead and kissed the bloody parts in a gentle, but creepy way, until he proceeded to the cheeks, which were bloodier than the forehead, and actually licked the blood off.

Rosetta winced in displeasure as the villain feasted on her blood. On the bright side, he didn't bite her and turn her into a Batrishan or a vampire of any sort.

It got creepier when Fidget forced to bend her back, leaning her chin in the process. This allowed Fidget to lean in and lick the bloody parts of her neck. This shocked Rosetta even more, especially when she felt herself shaking giddily.

"You're creepy," she said as he finished his final lick and pulled back, looking at the disgusted girl and chuckled in a teasing way.

"Indeed I am," he said.


	10. Chapter 10

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 10

Flashback: _The Enchanted Forest, year 1774, in a conference room at the royal Aldoradian Palace_

The next day was the day where Killian and his brother had to attend a meeting with Queen Florencia, her royal children (who served as royal diplomats), and the Denada Cortés, at the palace. The Jones sat on one side of the large, mahogany table, while the Aldoradians sat on the other side. Killian couldn't help noticing that Liam was still looking at Fitzgerald with a mistrusting look that was worse than the one he had last night when he saw the Navy Sergeant sitting right next to the Aldoradian Princess.

Last night, when the Jones were conducted to their chambers by an Aldoradian lieutenant named Alphonse, Killian told Liam about his time with Fidget and meeting his royal fiancée.

"Not only do they have an non-human militant, but he's also engaged to the royal line?" Liam asked in disbelief. "What kind of people is Aldorada full off"

"People full of honor, respect, and dignity," Alphonse replied. "The Denada Cortés family have been great military leaders for generations and have always been favored by the monarchs. Rumors once said that General Hernan and the Queen were lovers during their youth but couldn't be together due to their parents betrothing them to others. Still, Queen Florencia and the General are close friends, and when his adoptive son was introduced to the royal family during one of their regal parties, they noticed that he smote the princess by then."

"She fell in love with him when they were children?" Killian asked, touched by what Alphonse was saying.

"Indeed. And since the Queen and the General weren't able to be together when they were younger, they were hoping that their children would fall in love and be engaged, uniting the families. Their hopes were achieved, for Fitzgerald and Isabella grew fond of each other during the years and finally fell in love, resulting with Fitzgerald asking for the Queen's blessing and proposing Isabella's hand in marriage when he came back from the last battle."

"How old are they exactly?" Liam suddenly asked.

"They're both seventeen."

"SEVENTEEN?" Killian asked in disbelief. All this time, he had been talking to a teenager? "Aldorada recruits soldiers at a young age?"

"Usually, no. Fitzgerald was the exception: like all Aldoradian soldiers and his adoptive ancestors, he entered Aldorada's Military Academy at the age of five, but he was a prodigy among his peers in all the fields and was moved in higher ranks until he officially graduated and enrolled as a private at the age of ten. He proved to be even more prestigious than Hernan by making Aldorada win every battle, resulting with higher promotions from the Queen."

"Amazing…" Killian whispered.

Back to the meeting, the Queen had opened the discussion. The sovereign stood upright and had a serious look on her eyes as she addressed her audience.

"As you all known, our guests' King and I have finally managed to put down a truce. However, we both agreed that we must put our truce to the test by sending our countries on a quest," she announced. Murmurs were heard throughout the room as a servant brought a scroll and unrolled it on the table, revealing marine charts and islands.

"A map, Your Majesty?" Liam asked.

The Queen nodded. "Indeed, Captain Jones. This map leads to an island that holds an artifact known for establishing eternal peace between people. Our militaries, led by General Hernan Denada Cortés and Captain Liam Jones and seconded by First Class Navy Sergeant Fitzgerald Denada Cortés and Lieutenant Killian Jones, will go on an expedition to retrieve the artifact together."

There were nods, murmurs, and other noises. Killian quickly glanced at Fidget, who gave him a _Glad-We'll-Work-Together_ grin that Killian returned with a smile. Liam and Hernan simply nodded.

"Also, to make sure that things go according to plan, my son Prince Pablo and daughter Princess Isabella will accompany you as supervising diplomats," the Queen added. "Do we all agree with the terms?"

"We all agree," the audience said.

"Excellent. Prepare yourselves, for you leave tomorrow."


	11. Chapter 11

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 11

Emma arrived at Granny's Diner from the front door a few minutes after 'Henry' left with the food he ordered by going through the back door.

"Hey, Emma!" Ruby greeted her. "Want the usual?"

"Sure. I'll need it," the sheriff sighed.

The werewolf waitress smiled at the blonde savior and went to prepare a mug of coffee for her. "You seem in a pretty bad mood."

"Tell me about it. Leroy and Sleepy said that they saw a "bat-headed" person attack them, but when I went to investigate the crime scene, the only particular thing I saw was a circular dent the size of a heel on their crashed truck."

"A 'bat-headed' person?" Ruby frowned as she handed a mug of coffee to Emma. "I think I've heard before of a species of humanoid bats called Batrishans."

"What the heck are those?" Emma took a sip of coffee. "Vampires?"

"No. They were said to be an altruistic nation that brought art and science inspirations that lasted for eons. But they've been extinct for almost three hundred years now. Not one of them has been seen."

Enter Granny Lucas. "Actually, when I was raising Ruby back in the Enchanted Forest, I've heard stories of a peg-legged pirate who had the appearance of a crippled Batrishan. Plus, my grandmother used to tell me of the possible rumor of one sole survivor of the Batrishan Genocide."

Emma pondered at the given information. _A peg-legged pirate?_ The circular dent on the dwarves' truck was the perfect size for a heel. _Humanoid bats?_ Leroy said something about their aggressor having the head of a bat.

"I bet the culprit might be a Batrishan," Emma said. "Ruby, will you come with me? I can use for your tracking skills."

"Sure, Emma. Just give me a few minutes to go change." Ruby left to go to the restroom.

"It's a waste of time, if you want to know my opinion," Granny Lucas said. "Batrishans weren't seen for over 300 years. Plus, they were altruistic people. None of them were known for being violent at all."

Emma shrugged. If she and Granny had noticed at all, they would have heard Ruby shouting through the tissue that Henry used to cover her mouth and knock her unconscious before getting teleported by magic.

"Hold her still."

Henry unwillingly obeyed as he held Ruby tightly, enabling her from any movement, as Fidget poked one of her arms with a syringe. The poor boy watched as red blood began filling the syringe in less than a few seconds. Fidget put the blood-filled syringe aside on the table and pulled out another syringe, only this one was full of a yellow substance, which he used to poke Ruby's other arm.

"This will make her forget everything that happened in the last half-hour," Fidget told Henry as the substance went through the unconscious werewolf's skin. "Put her back where you last found her. I got the werewolf blood that I needed."

"May I see Rosetta? To see if she's alright?" Henry asked quietly.

The Batrishan's wings fidgeted at the question; the crippled wing made a weird fidgeting motion as he gave a dark look to the boy, only to shrug it off. "You have five minutes. Hurry up."

Henry quickly ran to the cage where he found the frightened Rosetta hugging her legs and whimpering. She looked like she didn't sleep at all, and it's been barely 3 hours since Fidget captured them and ripped out Henry's heart. Slightly visible scars could be seen all over Rosetta's face and neck.

"Rosetta? What happened? You look horrible!" Henry gasped.

"I've seen worse horrors in my life," Rosetta whimpered. "You should go, Henry. Your mom's going to notice Ruby's absence anytime soon."

"But…"

"TIME'S UP!" Fidget cut in. "Off you go!"

Henry turned to face Fidget. "What did you do her? Tell me now!"

Fidget held out Henry's heart and gave it a slight squeeze, causing Henry to scream and hug his chest as he kneeled on the ground. "What I do to her is none of your concern. Now go return the werewolf to the place where she last was and leave without saying a word to anybody unless you and your friend want to see the darkness of the afterlife." He snapped his fingers, making Henry and Ruby disappear. He turned to Rosetta. "Dinnertime. What did he bring from Granny's?"

"Turkey delight," Rosetta said with a weak smile.

"Ruby! Are you all right?"

When Emma went to check on Ruby, she found the latter throwing up in the toilet. The poor girl was wobbling when she tried to get up that Emma had to help her get up.

"I don't feel so good…" Ruby choked.

"Granny!" Emma called. "Ruby needs help!"

"Oh, dear!" The old woman rushed to her ill granddaughter. "Ruby, my poor girl, what on earth did you eat?"

"I don't know…" was the only reply.

"I'll bring her up in her room," Granny Lucas said. She took Ruby by the arms and started to take her to the inn behind the diner until the front door bursted open and a pack of five dark, jackal-like dogs with Egyptian collars barged in howling. Customers panicked and backed out of the way as Emma pulled out her gun and started aiming at them until one of them pounced on her, pining her to the ground and knocking the gun off her hand. Emma tried to use her magic against the razor-sharp fanged canine, but for some reason… it didn't work on the dog.

"I don't get it. Why isn't my magic working?" Emma asked.

"Because they're my dogs," a voice cut in.

Everyone looked toward the front door to see a tall, slender man walk inside. He seemed young, in his late twenties or early thirties like Emma; only his skin was copper brown, and his short, and jet-black hair had a turban ornated with a red jewel that covered his ears. Black sunglasses covered his eyes. He wore a black tuxedo with a white shirt underneath it, black leather gloves, black shoes, and a yellow belt.

"Who are you?" Emma asked.

"That's Mr. Anton Romanov," Granny said. "He's the owner of the Romanov Jewelry Boutique in Storybrooke. He and his family came to town during the first curse. They're practically richer than Mr. Gold himself."

"So who was he back in the Enchanted Forest?"

"You mean what I was in any realm," Mr. Romanov said. He unveiled his turban, revealing wolf-like ears much to everyone's surprise. But it was when he removed his sunglasses that froze everyone, for it turned out he had golden, wolf eyes that glared people in an uneasy way.

"I am Anubis, Ancient Egyptian god of mummification, death, and funerals. My daughter Rosetta is currently missing, and from what I've heard, Emma Swan, she was last seen with _your_ son Henry Mills."


	12. Chapter 12

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 12

"What are we going to do, Rumple?" Belle asked nervously. It's been a while since Fidget threatened them at the pawnshop before he left and Rumple was pacing back in forth. Everything didn't make sense: for one, he didn't understand how Fidget the Bat got into Storybrooke while there was a magical barrier preventing any outsider to find the town line and for any insider to leave without the chance of never returning to the town at all. For two, he still didn't could comprehend how Fidget managed to learn magic and pull out Henry's heart despite the protection spell that Regina put in the boy's heart after their misadventure in Neverland.

"I don't know, Belle," Mr. Gold panicked. "If we don't do something, Henry and his friend will get hurt and everyone will blame us for not telling them the truth; if we do act, then the children will be in worse trouble."

"There has to be a way to help defeat Fidget without any consequence."

"Yes, but what?"

If the Golds weren't so busy with panic, they would have noticed that deep within Belle's womb, there was a fetus. And deep within the baby's mind was a gray void, with nothing much going on, only a few glowing orbs floating in midair. Some reflected darkness, which was what was the fetus heard from its mother's womb. But the rest of them were full of dialogues that the fetus heard ever since it began developing within the womb.

A slinking shadow lurked throughout the grey void in an eerie, slithering way, like a snaky eel lurking in the sea depths. It swirled around the orbs like a mass of slithering tar until it reached an orb that featured the Golds' last conversation about Fidget. Malicious curiosity caught the thing as it shaped monstrous hands and grabbed the floating orb. Its bony, gooey fingers toyed at the orb as red, demonic eyes appeared and an evil snicker was heard.

"This is the perfect opportunity to finally begin my villainy without my physical body even being born," it said with a feminine, yet sly voice full of malevolence and evil. "Soon, Storybrooke won't be able to prepare for what comes next. They won't even expect a lurking mastermind like me in the mind of what they think is a harmless newborn. Things will go according to plan, and the Batrishan's presence in Storybrooke is the perfect key for epic chaos."

The snicker grew into an evil laughter as it echoed throughout the grey void of the fetus' mind without the Golds even feeling or hearing its malevolent force.


	13. Chapter 13

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 13

Flashback: _Year 1774, aboard the Aldoradian ship_ God's Dorada, _a few days later._

The winds were calm as _The Jewel Of The Realm_ and one of Aldorada's ships, _God's Dorada_ , sailed together in the middle of the ocean during the expedition towards the peace-making artifact. While General Denada Cortés, Liam, and Prince Pablo were aboard _The Jewel of The Realm_ , Killian, along with Fitzgerald and Princess Isabella, were sailing on _God's Dorada_ with half of the expedition's crew.

Killian kept watch of the directions that _The Jewel Of The Realm_ took ahead of them. Although he was used to sailing, he wanted to make sure that he didn't lose sight of his brother; After all, he was the only family he had left.

"Lieutenant Jones?"

Killian looked behind him. Princess Isabella stood there. Unlike the way he met her back at the party, she was dressed in the Aldoradian uniform, only in a way that was fit for a woman, and her hair was tied up in a militaristic ponytail. She looked more serious than the giggling princess he saw a few days ago.

"Fidget wanted to know if you've seen any change of direction from our comrades ahead of us," she said quite simply.

"No changes so far, your Highness." Killian's tone was respectful as he answered the princess.

"There's no need to do all of the ' _Your Highness_ ' around me when we are out of the castle. You can just call me Isabella. Even Fidget said you didn't have to call me by my title."

Killian nodded in an understanding way. Yet, although he didn't doubt Fitzgerald at all, even as they were developing a friendship, he was still curious to know how a Batrishan like the sergeant got engaged to a human princess. So he dove into a conversation.

"Fitzgerald is quite a remarkable person. I wish I'd met more honorable people like him during the previous years of my life," he told Isabella. The latter's face brightened at the positive mention of her fiancé. She sighed happily.

"I know, right? He's brave and a great leader. He's sophisticated and polite. He's very intelligent, warm, welcoming, and so much more. He's also very handsome." She twirled in a dreamy, girly way on the forecastle deck. "I fell in love with him ever since we first met."

"True love at first sight?" Killian guessed.

"Yes. We were only two-years-old when he met during one of my mother's royal parties to celebrate another victory led by Fitzgerald father. We were young, yes, but I knew right away when I saw him that I was in love. And he reciprocated the same feelings over the course of the years until we finally became a couple by last, and a few months ago, he proposed to me."

"A true tale of romance between…" Killian decided not to say the rest of it.

"Between a beauty and a beast?" Isabella completed the sentence for him. "It is one. After all, what goes on for him in the inside is more essential than what is going for him on the inside."

A marine breeze finally hit the sails as Isabella excused herself and went to the other side of the ship, where Fitzgerald was giving navigating directions. Killian smiled in amusement as the princess stole a kiss from the Batrishan; the latter returned the theft as well. It was obvious to Killian, that the sergeant and the princess were lucky to have each other. The wise words of Isabella still rung in his head.

 _What goes on for him in the inside is more essential than what is going on for him on the outside._


	14. Chapter 14

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 14

"Lord Anubis!"

Granny cowered as she went down on her knees and bowed to the so-called god.

"Seriously?" Emma sarcastically asked. "You're going to tell me now that there's an Ancient Egyptian god walking in Storybrooke now?"

On that day, Emma toughly learned to never question a god. For Anubis held out his hands and as his eyes brightened with immensely bright rays of light. Everyone had to cover his or her eyes except Emma, who squinted. Glowing hieroglyphics emerged from Anubis' hands and circled around Emma with bluish, neon light. Suddenly, Emma felt her skin drying. When she looked at her hands, she saw in horror that they were turning into dry, yellow skin that was gluing onto her bones, which she could now see through her skin. She looked down at her body and she saw that the same thing was happening to her legs, stomach, etc. Even her clothes were starting to rot.

"ALL RIGHT! I BELIEVE YOU!" she shouted. "PLEASE, I BEG YOU TO STOP!"

Anubis clenched his fists to his sides and the magic disappeared. Emma felt her skin hydrating and saw that she had returned to her normal self.

"The next time you question my power, Emma Swan, I swear I will turn you into a mummy for good and ferry you to the afterlife," Anubis said darkly. "Now where is my daughter?"

"Your daughter?" Emma frowned.

"Don't play coy with me," the god angrily said as he snapped his fingers, summoning his dogs to surround Emma. "She was with your son Henry."

"What are you talking about? Henry wouldn't…"

"I know!" All eyes turned on Granny. "Lord Anubis, I heard that Henry Mills was assigned to tutor your daughter Rosetta. He told me that she didn't feel well at school today and was sent back home."

"Wait! When did you tell you that?" Emma asked with a surprised tone.

"Why, he was here a few minutes before you came. He came to order a double of what Rosetta- such a sweet girl she is- usually gets here in order to give it to her as a hope-you-get-better gift."

"That sounds like Henry. Always trying to cheer up others," Emma smiled.

"Yes indeed." Emma turned to see Anubis walking towards her. His hounds made a pathway for their master. "Especially…considering the fact…THAT MY DAUGHTER ISN'T IN MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW!"

"She isn't?"

"Why in the name of Hell do you think I walked all the way from my shop after my wife called me and said that Rosetta didn't come out of the school building when classes were over and my wife had to go inside after an hour or an hour-and-a-half of waiting and Rosetta's teacher said that she hadn't seen Rosetta all afternoon since she 'apparently wasn't feeling well and had to go to the infirmary' and then the school nurse said she wasn't there, and to crown it all, **HENRY MILLS WAS WITH ROSETTA THE LAST TIME SHE WAS SEEN?** " Flames spread over the god's body as he screamed the last part. Customers ran out of the diner in order to avoid intoxication. Only Emma, Granny, a sick Ruby, Anubis, and the hounds were left.

"Look, I don't know what this entire thing is about my son dragging some…god's kid out of school, but I'll get on it as soon as I deal with the problem I have with…" Emma said calmly.

"The peg-legged Batrishan that crossed the town line?" Anubis asked sarcastically.

"Wait what? How did you…? So all this time the culprit was…indeed a Batrishan?

"Well obviously. Usually Batrishans are the least violent of all living things unless they must really use violence. The species extinct, of course, except for one sole survivor, who has been ditching death for a while. Feel free to ask your boyfriend about it, since he knows the Batrishan more than anyone in this town, but for now, your main focus will be to find my daughter!"


	15. Chapter 15

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 15

Rosetta shivered in her cave.

As the daughter of an underworld god, she shouldn't have to feel anything from cold to heat whenever she was in the underground. But maybe it was because she occasionally went under the layers of the earth with her father; he would always be there to protect her, and so would her half-brothers, the Jackals of Anubis, and her mother.

But her family wasn't here. Her father wasn't here to protect here from harm using his powers, strength, and hounds. Her mother wasn't here to hold her tight, tell her that everything would be alright, and use a crossbow to attack aggressors. Her half-brothers weren't here to guard her from menaces. Now, she was all alone, locked in a cage hanging in an underground abyss, with a revenge-seeking Batrishan who was feasting on her blood as a punishment for misbehaving towards him.

Rosetta hugged herself tightly. She ate barely ten minutes ago and the hot food in her belly wasn't enough to keep her warm. Her hands rubbed each other roughly, but resulted in nothing except red marks on her brown sand skin. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she silently cried, her head cuddling on her knees.

Her sadness was interrupted when she heard the lock of her cage unlocking. Her eyes turned to see Fidget opening the door of her cage. The Batrishan gave a dark look at the little demigod, who wished that all of this was only a bad dream or a fake vision that she got when she didn't sleep well or when she was ill.

She had no vision of what happened next: her captor gently grabbed her and carried her in his arms the same way her father did when she was too tired to even walk to her bed. Rosetta didn't predict that Fidget the Bat, with the dark past, dark intentions of seeking revenge, and dark willingness to use innocent children to achieve his scheme, would be cuddling her in a brotherly way although he was holding her captive.

"No, I'm not soft," he said, as if he read the demigod's mind. "I'm just annoyed of hearing tears while I'm a few inches close to get my revenge."

"I don't want to dance in celebration," Rosetta whimpered on her captor's shoulder. "I want to see my mommy again."

"I know." Fidget went to sit on one of his armchairs. He let the little demigod cuddle on his laps and bury her head on his chest, shedding tears on his old black-and-purple shirt. She felt something warm covering her back; her eyes gave a small look and saw that Fidget's right wing, the crippled one, to be exact, was shielding and warming her up like a warm blanket on a winter night. By giving a closer look at it, she saw how bad it was crippled: the _phalanges_ looked as if they had been crushed on by something and broke half of those bones. His wing membranes looked as if they had been ripped roughly. His fight with Killian was very terrible; Rosetta can't imagine how horribly their friendship had ended.

"You know, you're kinda of a nice jerk," she said quietly to Fidget.

He barely moved. "I'm not. Crying just annoys me, especially when I'm close to victory."

"Whatever."

Rosetta realized her mistake at the last minute. She feared that Fidget would lift one of his clawed hands and hit Rosetta with it until blood was spilling and he would have a snack. But instead, he was stroking her head the same way a relaxing person would stroke a puppy that was relaxing on top of that person. The Batrishan was really in a good mood. Confidence and preparedness for his revenge must have given him a good day.

"Do you know what time it is?" the Batrishan asked.

"Around five o'clock," Rosetta answered. "Why?"

The Batrishan pulled out a modern watch out in order to check the time. "Just checking the accuracy of your fortune-telling. It's 5pm. You're right."

"You need me to tell you where to find the last ingredient," Rosetta said quietly. She cautiously lifted her head to look at her captor. "Something's missing in your plan of revenge."

The red irises in those yellow eyes stared at the demigod in an agreeing manner.

"I do. I'm missing one essential thing: the blood of the person that my enemy loves most. Since you know everyone's life, including the one of Killian, more than anyone else, than you should be able to know whom his true love is. And I vow on the River Styx that if you give me the information that I need, than I will let you go with this."

He snapped his fingers and a small vial with a transparent liquid appeared in his fingers.

"You know what this is?" Fidget asked.

"I do. It's a potion of forgetfulness," Rosetta said.

"Very good. When I'm done with the codfish, you and Henry will be free and you will have this vial to erase your memories and any one else in this town involved in this affair. Your parents will forget that you briefly went missing. One drop per person shall do."

Rosetta looked at the vial. She wanted to forget everything, especially the way Fidget treated her, and go back to the life she had with her family. But all of a sudden, a vision came to her, causing her to have a headache.

Fidget noticed her suddenly putting a hand on her forehead. "What? I swore on the River Styx that I'd keep my word."

"It's not that…it's just," Rosetta said. "I don't think that a potion of forgetfulness will work on me."

"Excuse me?"

"I saw something…an old memory of my life. Believe me, I get headaches whenever I get visions."

The Batrishan put a hand on Rosetta's forehead. Indeed, he felt actual bumps going up and down inside the little girl's skull.

"I'm surprised your parents, especially one of them being a god, didn't find a cure for these headaches or at least confined you to your bed."

"They tried," Rosetta said sadly. "They couldn't find anything. My dad fears that I might be a glitch."

"A what?"

"A glitch. Something too powerful enough to change the Fates' thread of life. I'm not supposed to exist. Even the fact that my father has sired many sons in a row proves it!"

"So?" Fidget asked as he got up from the chair ad lifted Rosetta off his laps and let her stand up on her own feet. "Just because you might be a glitch doesn't change your parents' affections towards you. Even if you were a bug, they'd still care for the person they raised as their own daughter."

Rosetta frowned. "Did you get such philosophy from being raised by humans?"

Fidget nodded. For the first time, Rosetta saw sadness in his face, which she hadn't seen so far.

"Indeed. My parents cared for me even though I was a Batrishan, which can be seen as a monstrosity by others. Aldorada admired and loved me for everything that I've done to protect and serve it even though I wasn't born there. My love Isabella loved me despite my ugliness. You can understand why I want to kill Killian after he killed Isabella and my father…at the same time."


	16. Chapter 16

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 16

Killian was aboard the JOLLY ROGER when Emma came along with a turban man with sunglasses and a bunch of jackals.

Before they even climbed aboard his ship, he recognized the Egyptian collars on the canines' necks and realized that the god Anubis was approaching, which made him nervous.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of welcoming you aboard my ship, Your Caninety?" Killian asked, giving a small bow to the god.

"Wait, you know each other?" Emma asked, puzzled.

"No, but he did pillage treasures in one of my temples back in the Enchanted Forest during his pirate years," Anubis said. "But I don't really give a damn about offerings…certainly not when my daughter's missing!" He snapped his fingers, summoning his hounds and ordering them to search the JOLLY ROGER. The Jackals of Anubis ran all over the deck and searched through the cabins, brig, and safes. Unfortunately, they came back with their paws empty.

"Will someone tell me why there are jackals searching my ship?"

"Weren't you supposed to be watching Henry?" Emma asked her boyfriend dryly. "And why didn't you tell me about the Batrishan?"

Killian froze at the mention of the word 'Batrishan'. An electric shock went through his body and panic overwhelmed his mind. _Oh, no,_ he thought. _Please don't tell me that Henry ran into Fitzgerald…_

"Emma, I can explain…" Killian began to say.

"You'd better!" Emma cried angrily. "You were supposed to watch Henry this afternoon while I was at work and not only is he not here, but Granny said that she saw him coming to the diner alone to get things for a girl who somehow disappeared!"

"Emma Swan, will you let him speak?" Anubis snapped angrily at the Savior, which made the latter jump. The god took a deep breath before addressing Killian. "Captain Killian Jones, do tell us what you know concerning today. And don't you dare lie. My eldest jackal son, Ared, doesn't like liars." He motioned one of the jackals, the biggest in the pack, which growled at the pirate and showed its bare teeth.

"OK," Killian began. "When the dwarves Leroy and Sleepy came to the sheriff's station and said that they saw a 'bat-headed menace', I feared that it meant the presence of my old acquaintance, Fitzgerald Denada Cortés, also known as Fidget the Bat…"

"Seriously?" Emma frowned. "You didn't want to tell me that some weird character from THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE movie might be in Storybrooke?"

"EMMA!" Hook snapped with a deadly serious tone. "Fitzgerald isn't a joke! He's not some silly character like the one from that idiotic Disney movie! He's human sized! He's led armies since he was young and he was known for killing ten men with one slash of his sword! He and I had misunderstandings years ago, which not only cost his right leg and right wing, but also our friendship. Ever since then, he's been trying to get revenge on me. Anger and hatred consumed him for centuries. He's done things much more horrible than you can imagine, Emma. He was there, hanging on top of the JOLLY ROGER, gloating and cackling evilly when the crocodile ripped Milah's heart and crushed it in front of me. _He trampled Baelfire's leg in Neverland_!"

Emma's cheeks were boiling with anger at the mention of Neal's real name. A sudden hatred for the Batrishan developed in her veins.

"What about the children?" Anubis cut in.

"At 3pm, I went to pick up Henry after school and for some reason he hugged me, which he never did to me, not even once. Then, he gladly accepted to go for a sail in my ship, but barely after a few seconds after we arrived, he suddenly said that he had to go check up on a child he was tutoring, Rosetta, who wasn't feeling well and he went to get her something from Granny's. He walked rather stiffly, when he left."

"So Henry left, claiming that he was going to see Rosetta, just like that?" Emma said.

Killian nodded.

Anubis looked around the dock. "Tell me, where was Henry Mills standing before he left this ship?"

"He was right here," Killian said, pointing at a spot next to the mast. "That's when he said he had to go."

Anubis frowned. He knelt near the spot that Killian was pointing at and, to the surprise of the mortals, he inhaled deeply. Grayish-golden smoke appeared above the spot and slithered inside the god's nostrils. When he finally exhaled, his eyes widened.

"Your son is heartless, Emma Swan," he said, lifting his head in order to look at the Savior.

Emma and Killian looked at each other, confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand…" Emma said.

"Henry being heartless?" Killian asked skeptically. "Impossible! He's the kindest, peace-loving boy I've ever met in my entire life!" His girlfriend smiled at the compliments he was giving to his son.

But Anubis didn't budge.

"Not _that_ kind of heartless!" he rolled his eyes. "I mean the heartless where he doesn't have a heart! Like literally!"

It took a while for the others to realize what he meant.

"But that's impossible!" Emma cried. "Regina put an irremovable barrier spell to keep my son's heart to be pulled out again after the incident with Pan in Neverland!"

"Than somebody with stronger magic than the Evil Queen must have managed to break through it, obviously!" the god snapped. "The Queen's reformed. The Dark One is gone, with little essence remaining in Storybrooke. You, Emma Swan, would have to be crazy enough to want to rip your son's heart out. As for me, I've retired from my godly duties and shared my immortality with my wife in order to lead a normal life! My daughter's captor is quite obvious!"

Just as he said that, pain suddenly spread throughout Emma's body. Blood was spreading from her side. The Savior fell on the ship's deck, screaming in pain as she clung to her bleeding side.

" **EMMA!** " Killian exclaimed. He knelt down to hold his beloved in his arms. " **No! Please, no!** "

While the pirate was busy crying for his beloved, Anubis looked to see where the attack came from. He finally saw someone on the port's catwalk, standing like a mummy and catching a dagger as if it were a boomerang. The dark silver blade was stained with Emma's blood. But that wasn't what horrified Anubis.

No, it was the fact that the aggressor was none other than Henry with a traumatized face who then ran away without turning back that horrified the Ancient Egyptian god.


	17. Chapter 17

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 17

"Emma! No! Look at me!" Killian cried, holding the love of his life in his arms. She was breathing rather unstably.

"Here. Let me." Anubis gently pushed Killian aside and held out his hand above the savior's wound. A golden glow with hieroglyphics appeared and, in a split second, the cut skin reattached itself together and the blood disappeared. Emma began breathing normally.

"I usually don't use my powers to heal mortals other than my wife," the god said as he removed his hand. "Luckily for you, the blade was neither poisoned nor did it reach Emma Swan deeply in the skin. It looks like Henry only wounded her in order to get her blood."

"But why would Henry want to hurt me?" Emma choked through small sobs. "I'm his mother…"

"No, love," Killian said. "Henry didn't hurt you. The one who somehow managed to rip out his heart and manipulated him was the one who hurt you."

 _In the cave_

"Finally! The last ingredient!"

Fidget cried in victory as Henry gave him the dagger with Emma's Swan on it. They stood next to a cauldron above a flaming fire while Rosetta was whimpering in her cage. She had watched in terror as Fidget was assembling his ingredients (the skull's poison, Ruby's werewolf blood, and more)and tossing them in the cauldron's boiling black substance.

"Just what I needed," Fidget snickered as he held the dagger above the cauldron. "The blood of the person my enemy loves most." At the last words, he dropped the dagger in the cauldron. It fell with a small _plop!_

The nightmare began. Dark crimson smoke was coming out of the cauldron. Howls followed and echoed throughout the cave, making the children shiver. The Batrishan cackled as he held out his hands in the air, his wings spreading out in order to make him look like a rising angel of darkness. His eyes glowed with ominous colors of red and yellow and his bared fangs shone from the lights of hell.

" _Ashiva, god of all. Give me thy power from above all,_ " Fidget began chanting. A vortex of red eyes started appearing among the smoke. Henry's eyes widened in horror and Rosetta held on to the bars of her cage.

" _Ashiva, god of all Batrishans. Bare me with your demons from Hell's end_." Demonic, bat-like creatures began appearing and flying in circles above the cauldron. Fidget was smiling in evil glee as he pulled out an open, empty vial from his shirt and held it up in the air.

" _Ashiva, god of justice. Send your forces to destroy my enemy and his vices!_ " Moaning, the demonic creatures flew in parades towards the opening of the vial and crowded themselves within its glass barrier. Once the spirits were all gathered inside the vial, a bat shaped cork appeared, closing the vial. The lights and smokes disappeared; Fidget's eyes stopped glowing as he victoriously looked at the vial in his hands.

"Perfect," he said. "We are close to the final stage of sweet revenge." With a flick of his hand, he opened Rosetta's cage. As soon as she got out of the cage, the Batrishan tucked the vial inside his shirt and grabbed the young demigod by the arm.

"Alright, you two! Let's go!" Fidget ordered, summoning Henry's heart in his hands while dragging Rosetta with the other towards a small opening in the cave.

"Not so hard!" Rosetta said. The Batrishan was squeezing her arm rather tightly and the pain was starting to make her cry.

"Your lucky that I'm not putting extra pressure in my grasp," Fidget snarled.

"But you're hurting me!"

"Believe me, I've experienced pain for centuries, and I doubt that the hospital getting a new patient with a broken arm is worth making a mountain out of a molehill."

"Where are you taking us?" Henry asked as the children forcefully followed the Batrishan.

"Somewhere where I learned the rough way that I should have never wasted my time serving common humans," Fidget said as they went through the pathway that led to the library's elevator. "A body of water where the villains lighten their loads."

Horror struck on Rosetta's face as she had a vision of what he meant: London, year 1897. A dirigible was flying above the Tower Bridge. Three people were aboard it: a man in a Victorian outfit steering the dirigible, a little girl looking down towards the earth in despair, and Fidget tiring from pedaling to much in order to increase the dirigible's speed.

' _Professor, we need to lighten the load,'_ Fidget said, hoping on the deck. The man at the steering wheel gave him a dark smile.

' _Oh, you want to lighten the load? Excellent idea!'_

Fidget was snickering at the girl, meaning that he wanted to throw her overboard. But the professor saw things differently. Instead, he grabbed Fidget by his bat ears instead and tossed him overboard.

' _NO! WAIT! I CAN'T FLYYYYYYYYYYYY!'_ Fidget screamed as he desperately tried to fly with his crippled wing without success and fell into the waters of the Thames River.

Back in the present, Rosetta struggled to free herself from Fidget's grasp.

"NO! You can't do that, Fidget! You can't kill Henry!" she screamed. The angry Batrishan managed to maintain her. Cursing under his teeth, Fidget snapped his fingers and the three of them were in the forest, at the edge of a ravine with watery rapids crowned with sharp rocks lurked underneath. The only difference was that, while Fidget and Rosetta were on the mainland, Henry was floating above the ravine.

"You promised you'd let us go when we were done helping you!" Henry shouted. "You lied!"

"Correction!" Fidget said loudly and firmly. He snapped his fingers and Henry's heart went straight back inside the boy's chest, allowing him to hear his heartbeats. "I promised the little girl on the River Styx that I'd let her go back to her normal life, but I didn't promise _you_ anything!"

"But what would my death mean to your revenge anyway?" Henry shouted, fearing his certain death.

"The codfish didn't just kill my love. He killed my father, the only family I had left. He destroyed my happiness and led my kingdom towards its end! I kill you and your mother, his beloved, and I destroy his loved ones as well, thus ruining his happiness. And when my demonic army spread chaos throughout Storybrooke, the codfish will be framed, excluded. He will relive the same pain that I suffered, only he'll die!"

"But that won't change anything! He's been through that kind of pain already! He knows what it's like to lose everything, especially those he loved! He lost his brother and his lover, my grandmother! He knows how you feel!"

"He doesn't! Because his suffering _didn't start_ WITH THE DESTRUCTION _OF A FRIENDSHIP_ **THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO LAST FOREVER!** "

At those last words, he snapped his fingers. Rosetta screamed as Henry fell into the ravine.


	18. Chapter 18

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 18

Flashback: _Year 1774, on the shores of Discordia's Isle, a week later._

After sailing for a week on the open waters, the _Jewel of The Realm_ and _God's Dorada_ had finally reached their destination: Discordia's Isle.

During the evening meals aboard the _God's Dorada_ , Fitzgerald told Killian the legends of how legendary the Isle was: millenniums ago, the goddess of chaos and discord named Discordia spread the gigantic chaos the world had ever seen. When the rallied gods had thwarted her plans by flooding the warring countries, the only patch of land where's Discordia's reigned the most was left, surrounded by oceans know, thus turning it into an island. The goddess died in the process and her ashes were used to create a relic that would put a stop to feuding nations. Whether the legend was true or not, nobody was sure, for nobody was seen coming back alive from the perilous Isle.

"What are the chances of us even finding the relic?" Killian asked Fitzgerald as they and the rest of the crew left the ships and used rowboats to reach the Isle.

"I'm not very certain myself, Killian," the Batrishan said quietly. "If it were a battle that I was having on a warring battlefield, then I would have told myself that my chances of winning were high. But I've never been sent throughout my entire years of military services on a quest to find a 'peace-making artifact'."

Fitzgerald took a break during the conversation in order to pull out his canteen of water and take a few sips before offering the canteen to Killian, who took it willingly. Killian couldn't help but notice that his friend was staring at the approaching Isle with dread.

"Fidget? Is everything alright, my friend?" Killian asked when the rowboats finally reached the beach full of grey sands. The Navy Sergeant was now placing a hand on his forehead as if he had a headache; Killian immediately held his friend by the shoulder in case the latter was feeling unwell.

"No, I'm not alright," Fidget said. "I fear the worst for me and my nation. Do not judge me, Killian, but I am not so sure of us completing the mission successfully…"

"What? How so?" Killian had a worried look on his face.

"From my youngest years of childhood, I've lived under the fear that people saw me as a monster. Even though my services to Aldorada have been greatly recognized, many still think of me as a beast because I'm not a human like them. I've seen the deaths I've caused on every single battlefield that I fought in; even at the age of ten, I could slaughter ten men without using more than one swish of my blade." Fidget showed Killian his sword with the dark handle. The sunlight reflected on the grey blade. "And now I'm having nightmares of standing in the middle of a ruined city, with bones on every ground, grey smoke and ashes filling the air like ravens, and worse."

"You aren't a monster, Fidget," Killian reassured his friend. "Just because you were born a Batrishan and have un-human strength doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of human morality."

Fitzgerald gave him a warm smile in gratitude. "Thank you, Killian, for your kind words of encouragement." He sighed in relief. "For a second there, I felt like I was becoming a codfish…"

"Why would a temporary lack of confidence turn you into a fish?" Killian asked, puzzled. His question made the Batrishan laugh.

"Not literally! Aldoradian codfish are rather cowardly sea creatures. In our nation, most of the animals, land or sea, are rather aggressive and willingly attack when they feel aggressed. But a codfish is so cowardly that it flees when it sees anyone coming near it, even a mere ladybug can frighten it. In Aldorada, referring someone to the codfish is a rather dishonoring name: the so-called codfish was a person who fell into dishonor by acting as a coward in his life, failing to do his duties, and never recognizing whenever they are wrong or not. Being called a codfish is worse than being disowned by your own family."

"That seems rather rough to me," Killian said.

Before Fitzgerald could respond, Liam summoned Killian in order to talk to him privately. After excusing himself politely to the Navy Sergeant, Killian went to join his brother at a pool guarded by large, pointed rocks.

"Whatever is the matter, Liam?" Killian asked.

"A message from our king," Liam said, handing the young Lieutenant a scroll with their kingdom's emblem. During the voyage, the Captain had kept in touch with the king via trained message hawks in order to share news about the diplomatic mission. This was the latest letter, from two days ago, to be exact. However, Killian was displeased by what he read in the scroll.

"I won't take any part in this," he said, shoving the scroll at his brother.

"Killian, be realistic. He isn't one of us…" Liam scolded his brother.

"Why? Because he's not human on the outside? I can't believe you, Liam! You always told me to believe in justice and equality. Back home, you lectured me when I made fun of other children just because they didn't have the same skin color than me. You told me to show respect when you caught me treating girls as inferior, worthless people. You raised me for the best, and I've learned so much from you. You were the figure that I relied on ever since father left us! And now, I find you judging a war hero from another country just because he's got a bat's appearance!"

"You've barely known him for a week," Liam retorted.

"And you barely talked to him! I don't care if our king ordered it, but I will **never** harm or kill Fidget, even if my honor depends on it!"

By those words, he stormed off, unaware that a few feet away, Prince Pablo had heard the entire conversation.


	19. Chapter 19

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 19

Just when the Golds were cleaning the pawnshop before closing time, the door bursted open and in came Emma, Killian, and Anubis, along with three of his hounds to guard the shop while the others went to track down Henry.

"Lord Anubis?" Rumple asked. "Sheriff Swan? Hook? What's going on?"

"It's Henry," Killian said. "I'm afraid that Fitzgerald ripped out his heart…"

"We know," Belle said. "The Batrishan came earlier today…"

Emma looked angry at Belle's words.

"YOU KNEW THAT HE RIPPED OUT HENRY'S HEART?" Emma screamed. She tried to tackle Belle until Killian and Anubis grabbed her by the arms to restrain her while Rumple held Belle protectively in his arms. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?"

"He threatened the lives of my wife and unborn child," Rumple said, placing a gentle hand on Belle's stomach to show the others what he was referring to. This definetly calmed Emma down.

"I'm…I'm so sorry Belle," she stammered. "I didn't know you were…"

"…Pregnant with an infant full of the Dark One's darkness," Anubis cut in sharply. All the mortals looked at the deity in shock: the Golds in a very horrified shock.

"Just as I feared," Rumple muttered. "I told you that things wouldn't go well with our child, Belle!"

"It doesn't prove anything!" Belle insisted.

"Rumplestiltskin is right," Anubis cut in. Belle looked at the god in surprise. "The infant might be unborn…yet, I can feel the aura of the Dark One lurking within its small, little brain."

"Time out," Emma said. "I thought you couldn't have the darkness of the Dark One in you unless you killed the current Dark One. And didn't we destroy that darkness with Merlin?"

 _You'd be dumb enough to believe that evil isn't born but made_ , a voice snickered. The jackals of Anubis growled as the adults and the god looked around them to figure out where the voice came from.

 _In the womb,_ the voice taunted. Belle placed a hand on her stomach and her face was full of fear now.

"I…can feel it," she gasped in terror. "It's…coming from my baby…"

 _It seriously took you_ that _long to figure it out, mother dearest?_ The voice mocked.

"If you really are our child, you will not speak to your mother that way!" Rumple growled angrily.

 _How it runs in my family to talk back to others!_ The unborn infant laughed wickedly, scaring the adults. _To be frank, you're already a coward in my eyes, dearie._

"Bloody hell, she's already talking like you when you were the Dark One, crocodile," Hook said.

 _Wow, you really aren't as dumb as you look. But the lack of bravery…the lack of keeping promises…No wonder Fitzgerald Denada Cortés calls you a codfish, the Aldoradian insult for a coward with no sense of honor._

"Alright! That's enough!" Emma said angrily. "What do you know about what's going on with the Batrishan and what he did to my son?"

 _You mean Fidget-that's his common nickname, by the way, aside from the Batrishan Prince of Darkness, the Vampire of the Seven Seas, He-Who-Stroke-Deals-With-Five-Immortals, and the one who entrapped one hundred villains in Pandora's Box._

 _Yes, I admit that I knew his arrival in Storybrooke. Even in my physical unconsciousness, I spiritually managed to learn about his arrival in Storybrooke last night with all the dark energy he emits. And to be honest, Fidget's a hundred times worse than me when it comes to villainy._

 _He's the one who scared the dwarves by accident when he got through the town line from the outside world and landed on top of their truck, causing a small accident. That's the part where he learns the existence of one of the ingredients he needed to fulfill his revenge on the codfish._

 _For most of today, he hid underground and spied Killian Jones from the clocktower. When he saw the pirate leaving my precious papa's store, he feared that Rumplestiltskin's involvement would interfere with his revenge scheme-Fidget didn't know that my father wasn't the Dark One anymore._

 _That's when Henry Mills and Rosetta Anubisia came. He scented their presence at the Storybrooke Library while they ditched class in order to get information on the Batrishan when Rosetta had a vision of Fidget harming Emma Swan. Once he recognized the parental genes of their scent, he concocted a plan to use them for his plans. Fidget captured them and held Rosetta hostage while he ripped out Henry's heart so that the boy could do his bidding._

 _While Henry fetched the missing ingredients-Emma's blood, a werewolf's blood, and a few coals from the mines-I'm excluding the diamond skull from this shop because Fidget got it himself by blackmailing my parents- Rosetta was caged within the Batrishan's lair. For attempting to anger him, Fidget the Bat used a blade to create cuts on her face in order to suck her blood as punishment._

 _Once the ingredients were gathered, he created a potion that would unleash demonic creatures that would create a field of carnage and desolation in Storybrooke, framing Killian in the process and causing him to lose everything he holds dearest. You might as well say that Fidget wanted the codfish to suffer the same way that he had thanks to the codfish._

 _Fidget then took the children to the woods and restored Henry's heart back to its initial spot. However, he broke half of his promise of letting the children go by keeping Rosetta hostage and throwing Henry at the bottom of a ravine. The end._

The adults were too stunned for words. The Golds were horrified by the malevolent resume that came from their child's spirit. Killian feared the worst for everyone, but mostly for Fidget. Emma and Anubis were furious when they learned what the Batrishan had harmed their children; Anubis was the most pissed of the two.

 _By the way, I almost forgot_ , the baby's voice added. _In less than three seconds, you're all going to forget what I just said._ True to its words, black smoke suddenly filled the pawnshop, blinding the adults and hounds. Once they were done coughing and the smoke cleared, they all forgot about their encounter with the baby's spirit.

"I'm…I'm so sorry Belle," Emma stammered. "I didn't know you were…"

An army of shrill screaming coming from outside cut her off.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Killian said.

"We'd better find out!" Rumple said. Agreeing with him, the adults rushed out of the pawnshop, unaware that Fidget and Rosetta, who was gagged and shackled, had been listening to the entire scenario from the rooftop of the shop.

"That was quite a creepy child," Fidget said. "I don't what she's after, but I'm glad she brainwashed the codfish and his group!"

Rosetta mumbled through the loincloth that gagged her mouth. Fidget gave her a dark look that told her to shut up and softened once she did.

"Oh don't worry, little Rosie," he mocked, placing his index finger under her chin in order to lift her head up so that she could look at him in the eyes. "I'm not going to kill you. But since everybody in this town, including your parents, will be dead by the end of sunset, I'll keep you as my personal little friend…forever."


	20. Chapter 20

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 20

It was a nightmare in the streets of Storybrooke. Demonic creatures of various nightmarish colors with the same red eyes were swarming the town like a giant herd of hornets attracted by smoke. When the group of adults got out of pawnshop (after barely dodging one demon who flew over their heads), they were all equally horrified by the sight of these demons breaking windows, chasing the citizens of Storybrooke like cats and mice, and throwing cars the same way babies would throw teddy bears.

"Bloody hell…" Killian gasped.

"What on Earth are those?" Belle exclaimed.

"Batrishan demons," Anubis said, looking angrier than ever. "Their souls belong to those of ancient, deceased Batrishans who failed to live up to their traditional expectations. Fitzgerald Denada Cortés is quite a trickster: not only did he managed to manipulate his way away from death, but he managed to manipulate the dead of his own people to do his binding."

"Can you control them?" Emma asked. "I mean, you are a death god."

Anubis rolled if eyes as if he'd heard that a thousand times.

"Okay, first off, I'm a god of mummification and funerals. My job was to ferry the souls of the deceased to the afterlife, not rule them eternally. Second, I deal with _Egyptian_ death, not Batrishan death. Third, I can't deal with the souls of a monotheist culture while I'm part of a polytheist culture."

"In other words, due to godly rules, you can't keep these demons under control," Belle said simply in order to sum it up. "So how do we stop them?"

"Well, I am detecting a magical aura from those demons that originates from a certain magical container. If we destroy it…"

"We obliterate those demons. Excuse me for one quick second."

Anubis made one big jump and nearly gave everyone a heart attack as he transformed into a car-sized jackal with a golden Egyptian necklace and razor-sharp fangs and bit a passing demon on the neck. He bit the demon so hard on the skin that it exploded into smoke.

"What was that for?" Emma asked as the god turned back into his human appearance.

"Aside from my nose, I can also use blood to track down things," Anubis explained. "I now know the location of where to defeat the demons. Follow me!"

He turned back into a jackal and ran through the streets and alleys, followed by Belle, Rumple, Killian, Emma, and the three hounds, who stuck with their masters like a pack of wolves in the middle of a hunt. The group was reaching the docks until Anubis suddenly stopped and shifted back to his human appearance. The others were confused by his sudden action until they saw him pull out a phone ringing with Ancient Egyptian music and answer it.

"Marion? What on Earth is going on, honey? Wait…what?! You found him there? What about Rosie? OK, listen, I have to deal with an urgent emergency involving flying demons, and yes, it involves the person who kidnapped Rosie. I'll bring her back, I promise, my love." He hung up the phone and turned to face the humans.

"My wife found your son, Emma Swan," he said.

"Where is he? Is he alright?" Emma asked desperately, grabbing the god by the collar.

"Emma, calm down!" Killian said as he and Rumple tried to restrain Emma from nearly strangling the god. "How did your wife find Henry, Lord Anubis?"

"She said that while she went to search for our daughter through the woods with a couple hounds, my eldest one, Ared, picked up a scent, but it didn't belong to Rosetta. It belonged to Henry. Marion and the rest of the hounds followed Ared until they reached a ravine, where they found an unconscious and bleeding Henry at the bottom."

"No," Emma sobbed and fell down on her knees. Belle comforted her with a hug.

"Is my grandson alright?" Rumple asked.

"He's alive, Rumplestiltskin. My wife immediately took him to the hospital. Henry got a few broken ribs and a twisted ankle, but he'll heal. But while we're at it, Henry did manage to give good information."

"What kind of information?" Killian asked.

"Let's focus on the essential that Henry said: Fitzgerald was the one who unleashed the demons, he's holding my daughter captive, and he's trying to get his revenge on you."

"I'm going to kill him," Emma muttered as she got up. "For what he did to Henry, I swear I'll…"

"Emma, let's worry about that later," Rumple told her. "For now, we have a thousand demons to stop before they destroy the town and a demigod to save."

"The crocodile's right," Killian said. "Besides, I need to have a discussion with Fidget. I…I just can't bear it anymore, living up to the accusation of me ruining his happiness and him suffering the consequences. We've both lost loved ones. Why are we any different. Plus, I miss him a lot."

"How on earth can you miss him, Killian?!" Emma said in disbelief.

"He was my friend, Emma! We were the best of friends and one misunderstanding caused a rift between our friendship and an irrational hatred to root him for nearly 3 centuries."

"How sweet," a sarcastic, raspy voice said. "Tender lies before a cold, delicious taste of revenge!"

The group turned towards the direction that the voice came from. A dark, bat-like man with long, dark hair dressed in a vampirish purple-and-black outfit stood on one of the catwalks. Despite his right peg leg, he had no problem standing up straight in a perfect manner. His wings were spread open, making the sunrays shine on the metallic wires that gave the missing part of his right wing a mechanical, nightmarish appearance. His left hand held on to a long, black scabbard that held a sword with twisted, bat wing designs as its grip. His death glare coming from those golden eyes with bloody red irises stared at Killian specifically.

"Hello, codfish," Fidget the Bat said as he unsheathed his sword from the scabbard, revealing a dangerously sharp, silver blade. "Did you want to see me as much as I wanted to see you die in pain and agony as I kill your loved ones the same way you did it to mine?"


	21. Chapter 21

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 21

"Well, I must admit: I didn't expect you to foil my plan…partially. Oh well, the sooner I kill you, codfish, the better."

The group watched with a turmoil of emotions as Fidget took a few steps forward, dragging his sword in the process. Terrible, screeching sounds could be heard as the blade scratched on the wooden catwalk. By the time the Batrishan stepped on the mainland, a large portion of the catwalk broke apart and fell into the harbor.

"Where's my daughter?" Anubis asked angrily. His hounds growled at the mention of their missing sister.

"Did I ask for your interference?" Fidget snapped. Rumple, Belle, Emma, and Killian gasped in shock at the sight of Fidget talking back to a god. Anubis definetly did not like the way he was being lacked respect. He snapped his fingers and the hounds bounced at Fidget, preparing to attack him for insulting their fatherly master. Fidget barely arched an eyebrow in surprise as he let go of his scabbard. Then, with such speed, he used his free hand to slash at the hounds all at once…with only one strike! The hounds whimpered in pain as they fell to the ground and moved in pain as if a car hit them in the stomach.

"My children!" Anubis cried in despair as he rushed towards them and managed to heal their injuries with his magic. Shock filled his eyes as he watched the Batrishan move away from him and towards the human. "Any mortal who tries injuring my children would have perished on the spot! How did you manage to defeat the inevitable?"

"Why do you think I'm nicknamed **He-Who-Stroke-Deals-With-Five-Immortals**?" Fidget asked in a flat, sarcastic tone. "Ironic, isn't it? Striking deals with immortals and getting divine protection has guaranteed me invincibility."

"You won't get away with this!" Emma said as she started lunging towards the Batrishan. Before Killian could stop her, Fidget summoned a dark, magical blast of energy with his spared hand and used to send Emma flying towards a nearby hangar. The Savior screamed as pain filled her spine.

"EMMA!" Killian cried in despair. He started rushing towards his beloved, but he and the Golds got stuck in a large ring of black fire. Killian turned to see Fidget walking through the flames without getting one single burn.

"Tsk-tsk," Fidget shook his head disapprovingly. "Will you ever learn to take responsibility, codfish? Stop running away like a coward."

"Fitzgerald," Killian said gently. "Please listen to me, old friend…"

"Old friend?" Fidget's voice rose in anger. " _Old friend?_ _**OLD FRIEND!?**_ You broke my trust, killed the last remaining people I loved, wrecked my reputation, and handicapped me both physically and mentally!" He gave his peg leg a small tapping with his sword and pointed the blade towards his half-artificial wing. "My life was ruined for centuries and you take the leisure of calling me old friend when I finally come to give you payback? Your cowardice does precede you!"

"If you had just listened to me back then," Killian pleaded. "I swear, Fidget. None of this would have happened if you heard me out."

"I don't do pathetic words, codfish! Excuses will never get you out of the mess you created.! Only actions define your guilt!"

"For the hundredth time, Fitzgerald, and I'm honest about this, I never killed Isabella and Hernan!"

" **You? Being honest?** Then why did I see you standing above their corpses, with their bloods stained on your sword? Why did Pablo tell me that you planned to kill me in the name of your king?"

"It did not happen that way, Fitzgerald!"

" **I'm fed up with your lies, Killian Jones!** "

The Batrishan snapped his fingers. Emma and Belle found themselves in a large hourglass. Belle screamed at the sight of tar suddenly leaking on top of the women's head.

"Belle!" Rumple banged on the hourglass.

"Rumple! Help!" his wife screamed.

"Fitzgerald, let them go!" Killian said. "They had nothing to do with it!"

"Actually they do," Fidget gave an evil smirk. "I said I'd destroy you the same way you destroyed me: you killed Isabella, the one woman I loved the most, so I'll kill the woman you love. As for Rumplestiltskin's wife, she'll pay for the deal she and her husband broke: neutrality in exchange for not harming their grandson and their unborn child."

"But you broke your part of the deal! You threw Henry down a ravine!"

"Don't change the topic." The Batrishan snapped his fingers and a sword appeared in Killian's hands. "It's time to finish where we left off centuries ago!"


	22. Chapter 22

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 22

 _From Anubis' perspective_

While the Batrishan and the pirate were too focused in their sword duel, Anubis went back to tracking down the origin source of the demon army. He finally arrived, panting like a dog, at the location, where masses of demons could be seen flying out of the _Jolly Roger_.

 _He planned to frame the pirate,_ thought the god as he jumped aboard the ship. Two demons charged at him and he disintegrated them instantly. He was in a rush: he had to destroy the artifact that unleashed this hellish nightmare and find his little girl. He knew he couldn't live by himself if he failed to save and protect her, as he had sworn he would when he saw her come out of Marion's womb eight-years-ago.

Among all the chaos that the demons were causing, flying in twirls around the ship's mast, Anubis noticed that the demons were coming out in packs from the pirate's cabin. The door was broken as if somebody had tried breaking his way both in and out. The god frantically clawed and disintegrated his way through the demonic mob; he grunted in pain as his godly healing powers soothed the scratches that the demons gave him with their claws.

He fell onto the cabin's wooden floor and yelled in pain; even immortals could experience physical pain. He struggled to lift his head up until he saw what he was looking for: a glass vial lying on the floor with demons crowding their way out of it as if they were spilling their way out of Hell and not out of some villain's bottle. And they said back in 40 BC that nothing could be compared to Pandora opening the infamous box.

This seemed too easy for the god. He reached towards the vial and smashed his hand down on it, crushing the glass in the process. The demons froze after Anubis' action and wailed in agony as magic pulled them towards one another until they formed a giant ball of ooze. The creatures gathered in numbers and got thinner in size. They looked like a thousand Gollums melting into ooze.

Sensing the danger that was about to happen, Anubis turned into a jackal and ran his way out of the cabin just as an explosion of translucent light occurred, finally killing the demons.

Anubis should have felt relieved, but he couldn't. Such a blast of magic would at least cause a fire in the cabin or the ship to break apart. So why did nothing happen?

He turned back into his human form and took a step back until a black circle of flames, similar to the one the Batrishan had created earlier, appeared around his feet.

"HE HAD A PLAN B!" Anubis realized in horror as the wooden circle he was standing on fell apart, causing the god to crash down the main deck and hatch and into the waters of the Harbor.

Which was a problem, since he couldn't swim.

 _From Rumplestiltskin's perspective_

While the Batrishan and the pirate were too focused in their sword duel, Rumplestiltskin was frantically banging on the hourglass. He had to get his wife and their unborn child out of there before the tar filled the entire bottom half of the hourglass, suffocating them and Emma.

"Emma! Can't you use your magic to break yourself free from this quick, tar-full death?" Rumple exclaimed as he continued banging.

"I'm trying!" Emma tried to summon magic from her hands, but every time a spark of light magic appeared, it flickered like a birthday candle being blown away. "Fitzgerald must have placed a spell that nullifies magic other than his when he put us in this hourglass!"

"We have to find a way out!" Belle cried. "The tar is increasing in level!" She was right: the tar was now reaching the bottom of the women's waists. "Rumple, do something!"

"Belle…BELLE!" Rumple cried out as he banged one more time with his left fist to no avail. He hunched in near defeat, clinging on to his cane with his right hand.

 _ **HIS CANE!**_

Despite the possibility of him collapsing from his crippled foot, he grabbed the shaft of his cane with both of his hands and began swinging it back and forth, hitting the hourglass with the cane's handle as if he were hitting a piñata full of candy rather than rescuing his wife, their unborn child, and the Savior.

 **BANG!** A small crack was beginning to appear.

"You can do it, Rumple!" Belle smiled encouragingly. "You can do it…for our child!"

 **BANG!** The crack was getting slightly bigger.

"Hurry! We're not going to take much longer!" Emma struggled to paddle in the bath of tar that had now reached the top of their stomachs.

 **BANG!** Now the crack was half Rumple's size.

Killian and the Batrishan were still swordfighting, but so many swings and lashes made it clear that the Batrishan had the upper hand and was now preparing to slice Killian's throat.

 **BANG!** The crack had now expanded throughout the entire bottom half of the hourglass.

Anubis reached towards the vial and smashed his hand down on it, crushing the glass in the process.

 **BANG!**

The last cane strike crushed the glass, releasing a flood of tar and freeing Belle and Emma.

 _From Killian's perspective_

While Anubis ran towards the origin source of the demons and Rumplestiltskin was frantically banging on the hourglass, Killian and Fitzgerald were too focused on their sword duel.

They had started of with an absence of blade and glared at each other in silence.

"It's time," Fitzgerald said. " _En garde!_ "

The Batrishan flicked his sword towards Killian's stomach; the latter managed to block his attack just barely, for this caused him quite an unbalancement. Fidget swung his peg leg at the pirate's legs, causing him to fall on the ground. He then managed to dodge the Batrishan's attempt at striking him on the skull and aimed his sword at Fidget, who managed to block it without a blink.

"Will you ever stop wiggling your way out of death?!" Fidget demanded angrily among every sword swing they gave to one another.

"What about you?" Killian answered back. "Haven't you fled death for centuries." He aimed his sword at Fidget, but the Batrishan hit him on the stomach using his head like a bull, sending the pirate to crash onto a bench.

"I had my reasons! You ruined my life!" Fidget swung his sword at Killian, who barely managed to dodge the attack: he got a cut on his arm that caused him to groan in pain and the ground got a large crack from where the tip of the blade touched it. "Betrayed my trust! Impaled my nation's princess, my true love, and my fatherly general! Burned my country down to ashes! You took away everything I had!"

"You only believed what you saw!" Killian aimed his sword at Fidget. "Why couldn't you at least try to listen to me? Why did you only let your anger and hatred take over you?"

Fidget glared angrily at Killian, officially losing it. "You want to know why? FINE!"

The Batrishan swung the handle of his sword, making a twister of blades that knocked Killian's sword out of the latter's hand, and pushed the pirate down to the ground, threatening the human throat with the silvery blade.

"I've lost too many people," Fidget said, his voice darkening and breaking painfully at the same time. "A god annihilated my people; I never got to know my own biological parents. The malaria took my adoptive mother and she was the person I loved the most before I entered the Aldoradian army when I was ten. I've lost childhood comrades on the battlefield while I came out victoriously. I've lost respect due to my appearance, my status as the last Batrishan, and people thinking that I was a monster. When we met back in Aldorada during that royal reception, I felt happiness that I haven't had before: I found myself a friend who ignored my bat-like differences and respected me for my inner self. I believed that it would be an everlasting friendship… _but then you had to go and kill Isabella and Hernan while I had my back turned during that cursed expedition!_ "

Fidget prepared to slice off Killian's head until the sound of breaking glass caught his attention.


	23. Chapter 23

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 23

"OH C'MON!" Fidget yelled when he saw the Golds and Emma standing out in the open with tar staining their clothes and the ground bellow them. "IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR ONE, TRANQUIL DECAPITATION?!"

"No it ain't, mate," Killian gritted through his teeth. Copying one of his opponent's early moves, he swung his right leg at Fidget's legs, causing the latter to fall onto the ground and let go of his sword. Fidget was too stunned from the attack that Killian took the liberty to rush and confiscate the Batrishan's weapon, but as soon as he touched the sword's handle, his hand's skin began to burn. Killian screamed in pain as he let go of the weapon and fell on the ground.

"Killian!" Emma rushed towards her boyfriend with the Golds trailing behind.

"Idiot," Fidget growled at Killian as he got up and picked up his sword. "After all the pain I endured since my childhood, this sword won't let anyone but me wield it."

"The Blade That Rips Through The Soul," Rumple said quietly. "Which god told you about its existence?"

"What do you, ' _god_ '?" Emma frowned.

"Have you been paying attention at all?" Fidget rolled his eyes before addressing Killian. "Codfish, you really should have thought of checking the intelligent-level before replacing Milah. Oh, not like she was any better than Milah!" His voice went to a mocking level, which began to irritate both Rumple and Killian.

"Let's not get to that point, Fitzgerald…" the pirate said quietly. But the Batrishan didn't listen.

"Oh, my! And what are you going to do?" Fidget gave a dramatic pose of shock as if he were doing a play of Shakespeare and not taunting his enemy. "Wreck my love life? Oh, wait, you already did that by killing Isabella. I do wonder how many couples you've destroyed aside from Rumplestiltskin's marriage with Milah…"

"He did not ruin my marriage! I did!" Rumple said, defending the pirate.

"I'll never forget how heartbroken Ursula looked when I met her!" Fidget continued. "You should have seen the look on her face when she talked about the pirate who stole her voice and happiness!"

"I never had an affair with the Sea Witch!" Killian snapped.

"I wonder what happened to that fairy you encountered in Neverland? Or those countrywomen that you flirted with at taverns back in the Enchanted Forest? Just exactly how many **did** you deflower?"

"Fitzgerald, stop it!" Killian's calmness began to snap.

"I'm quite impressed that you ruined the Evil Queen's second chance in love by bringing her lover's wife back from the past. But what I would never expect is that you stole the woman of the one person you treated as part of your family even though he was the son of the Dark One."

That did it. Rumple, Emma, and Killian lost their temper at the mention of Neal and immediately attacked the Batrishan, but they all failed. Fidget easily swiped Rumple's cane out of his hands and stomped on his crippled foot before knocking him on the ground, making the ex-Dark One howl in pain.

"OOH! That has got to hurt!" Fidget mocked as Belle rushed towards her husband. "I'll never forget when an eight-year-old girl stomped on _my_ foot back in London." He motioned to his remaining foot.

"This is for what you did to Henry!" Emma shouted as she shot a blast of magic at Fidget. Just as the blast was about to touch him, Fidget held out a thumb and an index finger and stopped the blast, causing for the magic to turn from light to black. Then, he flicked the magic back at Emma. The blast hit her hard on the stomach and she fell to the ground, clinging to her bleeding stomach. Her state made Killian lose interest at confronting Fidget and rushed to the aid of Emma.

"EMMA! Please, not again! Please tell me that this just a minor injury!" Killian sobbed as he held his girlfriend in his arms.

Fidget approached them, his Bat-like shadow looming over them, as he grinned in evil glee.

"Now do you see my point?" the Batrishan asked. "This is what happens when you are a coward, codfish. You get people hurt and they suffer the same consequences than you."

"Because **you** don't suffer any consequence when **you** hurt others?" a voice asked.

Everyone turned to see Mary Margaret, David, and Regina rush to the scene, accompanied by a crimson-haired woman (who could have been around Emma's age) with cyan eyes dressed in a black pinstripe outfit and black heels and carrying a crossbow with her. Hounds just like those of Anubis came as well, some running to aid their injured siblings while others encircled the Batrishan. Regina rushed to try healing Emma's wound while Mary Margaret helped Belle and Rumple get up and David joined the hounds and the woman surround the villain.

"Where are my husband and my daughter?!" the woman asked angrily.

Fidget's eyes slightly widened. "You mean…you're Rosetta's mother? You look rather familiar. No, wait! You're one of the remaining members of the Romanov family!"

"How did you know that?" the woman barely flinched.

"Meh, I knew this other guy back in the Enchanted Forest who worked for Rasputin during the Russian Revolution. Apparently his boss nearly died from cold drowning while he was chasing your ancestor, Anastasia Romanov." Fidget shrugged as if he was told that last Tuesday.

"You're Marion? Anubis' wife?" Belle asked when she and her husband got back to their feet.

Marion groaned. "Can I go back to threatening the freak who kidnapped my daughter and did who knows what to my husband?" Her rise in tone definetly showed to others that she had a thick, Russian accent, yet spoke like a normal American woman.

"Technically, I harmed his hounds, not him," Fidget lifted a finger.

"Shut up," David said. "Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard. Just turn yourself in and there won't be any need to retort to more violence. We don't want more people to get hurt."

"You know, you have a weird way of saying that you'd prefer that everyone survives but me," Fidget said in a cocky tone.

"Well you know what? You have quite a weird way of trying to get your revenge," Regina said, using the same tone that Fidget used. "You use defenseless children to do your dirty work or hold hostage in order to get back at a man you wouldn't even want to listen."

Fidget scoffed. "Will you look at that? The Evil Queen lecturing me over how I seek revenge. Hypocritical, isn't it? I mean, c'mon. Your mother, Queen Cora, crushes the heart of your old flame Daniel just so that you could become queen and the only responsible culprit, at least from your perspective, is a ten-year-old princess? Not to mention that you kept blaming her for your unhappiness for decades and you still have to tolerate being treated as the Evil Queen despite all your efforts? Frankly, now I understand why Lady Cora was so disappointed in you."

Regina's confidence broke apart. Usually, she would strike back, but she couldn't. For she knew that the Batrishan was right.

"You seem to know Cora very well," Mary Margaret deducted. "Judging by how you refer to her as 'Lady Cora'."

"Very good observation… _Snow White_ ," Fidget remarked with mocking impressment. "I met Lady Cora back in Wonderland, long before the first Dark Curse. She was one of the five immortals I stroke a bargain with, since you know, she ripped out her own heart. In exchange for being her apprentice in magic, I had to loyally serve her for five years. A really nice Queen of Hearts, really. She's the one who taught me how to rip out hearts!"

"Funny that you should mention hearts," David said. "When we went to see Henry at the hospital, he said that you ripped out his heart."

"He did!" Rumple replied. "He had the heart in his hands when he came to threaten Belle and I in the pawnshop!"

"But…how is that possible?" Regina stammered. "I…I put a barrier spell that would prevent anyone from ripping out Henry's heart!"

"I sincerely hope that you don't want me to give you a live demonstration," Fidget muttered in disgust. "Because frankly, I don't have all the time in the world."

"Me neither." Marion cocked her crossbow at Fidget as the hounds growled at him. "Where are Anubis and Rosetta?"

"I recall seeing Anubis run towards the source of the demons," Killian said. "He said that they came from a sort of containment that needed to be destroyed…"

"You mean my vial?" Fidget cut in. "I put it on your ship."

"MY SHIP? WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU PUT IT IN MY SHIP?"

"Oh, you know. I was planning on framing you for the release of demons upon this little town and then you'd lose everyone you loved and your reputation. You know, close to what you did to me all those centuries ago."

"Well, your plan failed," David said confidently. "The demons have all disappeared. Anubis destroyed your vial."

"You know, just because I'm a Batrishan doesn't mean I'm near-sighted. Racist…" Fidget began saying before slipping an "Oh, crap!" from his mouth.

"Oops. I forgot about Plan B!"

"What do you, you forgot Plan B?" Killian said.

"Uh, well…" The Batrishan began to nervously fidget his fingers. "You see, I kinda put a booby trap spell on your ship in case you managed to get rid of the demons before I could kill you myself. It goes like this: if you had come out from smashing the vial, you would have been encircled by black flames that would break the part of the main deck where you were standing and make you crash your way down the ship until you hit the Storybrooke Harbor and well, you know, died from instant drowning."

Everyone gasped in shock! That Batrishan had such a twisted mind!

"Anubis is going to die!" Marion cried in despair. "He can't swim!"

"Well lady, it's your fault if you have to deal with a god who's hydrophobic, not me. Catch you later."

By those words, he spread his wings open and flew away from the docks.

"David, Belle! Go with Marion and Killian to the JOLLY ROGER to rescue Anubis!" Emma said. "Mary Margaret, Regina, Gold, and I will go after Fidget!"

"No, Emma. I have to go after Fitzgerald. You go at my place to the JOLLY ROGER," Killian told Emma.

"Killian, this is insane! He nearly killed you!"

"Let me go, Emma," Killian said. "I'm the only who can appease my old friend's thirst for revenge."

Emma cried as she gave her boyfriend a quick kiss. "Be safe," she said tearfully before the two groups broke apart.


	24. Chapter 24

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 24

"Hurry!"

Marion, Emma, David, and Belle ran towards the location of the JOLLY ROGER. The hounds were ahead of them, desperate to rescue the god who fathered him.

"How come the god of funerals can't swim?" Emma asked.

"Do I ask you why you slept with the Dark One's late son?" Marion snapped. "We don't have time for chitchat! My husband's on the verge of dying!"

"Over there!" Belle pointed.

The group stopped at the catwalk that led to the JOLLY ROGER. At least what was left of it. The ship looked like it had been sliced in half and was too close to sinking. The hounds were whimpering in fear as they patrolled by the edges of the catwalk. Marion rubbed the head of one hound, which looked at her with whimpering, puppy eyes.

"Anubis is in the water!" Marion gasped. "We have to fish him out!"

"I'm on it!" David jumped in the dull-colored waters of the Storybrooke Harbor. The women and the hounds watched anxiously for five minutes until David's head popped out of the water. He swam back to the catwalk, lifting an unconscious Anubis in one arm. The well-named Prince Charming laid down the god on the dry platform as soon as Belle and Emma managed to pull them up. Marion rushed to her husband, using the safety tactic of pumping the lungs by pressing her hands up-and-down on his chest.

"Anubis! Please, wake up!" Marion begged. "Please, don't leave me! Don't leave me!" She kept pressing on his chest. Anubis still didn't budge.

The red-haired woman cried when she stopped pressing. Her crying went to uncontrollable sobbing and she hugged her beloved god's unconscious body. The others watched in sadness as she gently pressed her face on the one of Anubis.

"Please don't leave me…" she choked. Several tears fell from her eyes and landed on Anubis' cheeks…

…And Anubis suddenly jerked up, coughing water out of his mouth.

" **BAH!** " He scratched his neck as he coughed. "What in Sorbek did the inhabitants of Storybrooke put in the harbor?!"

Marion's state of sadness changed to happiness once she saw that her husband was alive. She hugged him tightly.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" she cried. Anubis looked like he was in pain from Marion's gesture, but he returned her gesture.

"After I gave up everything, including half of my immortality, just to be with you?" Anubis chuckled. " _Never._ " He pulled his wife into a kiss, which she returned gladly. Emma and Belle tried to look away in embarrassment.

"I really don't want to break your reunion," David said, "but we have to help the others hunt down a Batrishan. For all we know, he's still holding your daughter captive."

This got Anubis and Marion's attention. An angered look filled both of their faces.

"Indeed," Anubis said. He and Marion stood up and prepared their weapons: Marion held her crossbow in a position that made her weapon align with her right arm. Anubis magically summoned a staff with an ankh at the end. The weapon emitted a golden glow in his hands. "We must find that Batrishan."

"Where was he going the last time we saw him?" Marion asked.

"Fidget seemed to be flying towards the forest when he left the docks," Belle said. "Do you think he hid her there?"

"Most likely," David said.

"Then we'd better go instantly." Anubis snapped his fingers and his hounds gathered, lined up in a military-styled way. " _ **Hadah jo Batrishan**_ _! Find the Batrishan!_ " His hounds howled in acknowledgement and instantly ran towards the town, howling as they did so.

"One thing I don't understand," Marion suddenly said, catching the attention of the others. "If Fidget was aiming at Killian specifically for revenge, and he held Henry and Rosetta in his clutches, then why did he choose to dispose of Henry, who's the closest to the pirate, instead of Rosetta?"


	25. Chapter 25

A BAT IN STORYBROOKE:

Chapter 25

Fidget hit the brakes of his car once he had Rosetta tied up on the passenger seat (he had her handcuffed) and instantly drove from where he parked the car on the Toll Bridge. He drove the vehicle as fast as he could but made sure he followed the speed limit while he drove through town.

"Wh-what are you going to do to me?" Rosetta stammered, looking tearfully at the Batrishan, who was focusing on the road.

"I'm taking you to the town line," Fidget said. "Plan C for my scheme is to threaten to throw you across it unless the codfish is killed." He snickered at his idea while it terrified Rosetta.

"Please! Not the town line!" Rosetta screamed, struggling to get out of her handcuffs. "I don't know what's going to happen if I cross it! The last times it was crossed, it erased people's memories, prevented anyone to step in, and turned a dwarf into a tree! What if I turn into dust?"

"Oh, spare me with the crying!" Fidget grumbled as he turned on Main Street. "I had no problem crossing the town line in and out to make sure that Storybrooke existed! And I made it without a scratch!"

This didn't help Rosetta. She kept crying. "Please! Just let me go back to my parents! I swear on the River Styx that I won't try to prevent any of your future schemes!"

"Tempting," Fidget said. "But no."

"I thought that you fought with love and honor!"

Fidget hit the brake in shock, nearly causing two other cars to crash into one another. Flashbacks of his childhood came into his mind, most particularly the one of a woman in her deathbed giving him his birth medallion back, along with a bat pendant with the words ' _Always fight with love and honor'_ carved on the wings.

' _Fidget, I love you. I always have. Never forget what I told you. Always fight with love and honor and…be yourself.'_

Fidget clenched his medallion with his right hand as he struggled emotionally. Rosetta watched as he began making angry noises and feared the worse for her sake.

"FOR KAÏRA'S SAKE, WHY ME?" he shouted as he brutally pulled his car by the sidewalk. He angrily parked it, got out of his seat, and walked all the way to the other side. He opened the door and removed the handcuffs from Rosetta, allowing her to nervously remove her seatbelt and step out of the car just when Mary Margaret, Regina, Rumple, and Killian managed to arrive on the scene.

"If you think we're going to let you hurt her the same way you nearly killed my son…" Regina began to threaten.

"JUST TAKE THE BRAT!" Fidget shouted, making the adults and Rosetta cringe in fright. "I'M SICK OF THIS TOWN AND EVERYONE IN IT! I'M LEAVING FOR A TIMEOUT!"

"Fitzgerald, please…" Killian began. But the Batrishan wouldn't listen.

"AND NO! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU, CODFISH! I SWEAR I WILL GET MY REVENGE ON YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!" He sprouted his wings and flew off towards the forest.

"Should we follow him?" Mary Margaret asked.

"No," Killian said. "We should let him rethink of his actions and emotions. Maybe it will help him to finally follow the right path."

"Because you really thinking that letting him exile himself in the woods will help him consider redemption?" Rumple asked.

"Several villains got reformed here in Storybrooke," Rosetta joined Killian. "Why is Fidget the Bat any different?"

 _Time Skip_

They had all gathered at Regina's house to recover. Anubis and Marion were hugging their daughter and tending the scars that Fidget gave her.

"This is the last time I'm letting you wander off into danger!" Anubis said in an angry, overprotective tone. "From now on, you're not going anywhere unless one of your jackal siblings or an adult escorts you!"

"Yes, daddy," Rosetta said quietly.

"I can't believe you let my daughter ditch class!" Marion angrily told Henry, who was now walking in crutches. "She's only eight!"

"I'm sorry," Henry said. "But when she said she had a vision of Fidget planning to hurt Hook…even if it meant hurting my mom in the process, I…I just didn't want to end up doing nothing!"

"You were only trying to help," Belle said, resting a hand on her step-grandson's shoulder.

"I'm still not sure why Fidget is desperate to get his revenge on Hook," David said. All eyes turned on Killian, who was sitting next to Emma on the couch, looking awfully sad.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Killian said. Emma held his hand in comfort.

"Would you prefer if I talk about it?" Rosetta offered. Killian gave her a silent nod and everyone stayed quiet while Rosetta talked.

"It was back in the year 1774, long before you and your brother Liam left for that expedition in Neverland. Your king had apparently signed a peace-making treaty with Aldorada's Queen Florencia and the two sovereigns sent their best military and diplomatic leaders for a trip to fetch a peace artifact located in Discordia's Isle. You and Liam represented your kingdom while Aldorada was represented by its royal heirs Pablo and Isabella and its best militants, General Hernan Denada Cortés and his adoptive son, the First Class Navy Sergeant Fitzgerald Denada Cortés, best known as Fidget the Bat.

"While most of your troop, including your brother Liam, didn't trust Fidget because of his non-human origin, you were the only one to actually befriend him. He gave you all his trust, he was excited to be paired with you, and the two of you shared everything with one another. You also befriended the princess Isabella, who was also Fidget's lover and fiancée.

"However, when you reached Discordia's Isle, Liam got a message from your king saying that he wanted you to dispose of Fidget. Secretly, your king wanted to destroy Aldorada, for he was jealous of the nation's glorious wealth and endless victories in battle. His sole intentions in the peace-making treaty was to find out who was responsible for Aldorada's endless success, and when he found out that it came from an undefeated soldier, the last member of an ancient, powerful non-human civilization, he saw it as an disadvantage and sought to dispose of Fitzgerald. But you were against it! You didn't want to lose your best friend, so you refused to take part in any of it.

"But what you didn't know is that Prince Pablo overheard your conversation, and he mostly focused on the part that mentioned your king wanting to dispose of his childhood friend and his sister's true love. So the next day, while Fidget and a few other soldiers went to patrol the Isle, he publicly revealed your troop's 'true mission' and declared you traitors. Hernan was furious and Isabella was shocked. Liam tried to put the blame on them for having a monster in their army. Hernan hated how Liam called him a monster, so he challenged him to a duel. You tried desperately to stop them, but you couldn't.

"Then, something strange happened. Even now you aren't sure of how it happened, but what you do know is that when Hernan managed to swash Liam's sword out of the latter's hand, the sword suddenly moved on its own and directly impaled both Hernan and Isabella, killing them.

"You were horrified. You tried to pull the blade out of their bodies, and just when you managed to do so, Fidget and the others came back and he only saw you holding a sword with a bloody blade over the dead bodies of his adoptive father and the love of his life. He mourned and screamed for them until anger and hatred suddenly filled him and targeted them at you. His new dark emotions caused him to sprout his Batrishan wings for the first time…and to desire your demise, forgetting how much you showed your loyalty.

"You tackled one another, and at some point, you rolled down a cliff and your elbow pressed on his wing, causing it to rip. He became incapable of flight on that day until just now.

"Then, for some reason, the Isle's volcano began to erupt although it was said to be extinct. Liam pulled you away from Fidget and the troops left back on the ships, leaving Fidget to die. I don't know how he escaped the Isle, but one thing's for sure, he howled that he would get his revenge on you."

Everyone stayed quiet in the room when Rosetta finished speaking. Killian, however, broke into tears.

"This sounds worse than the time when I pulled Milah's heart out," Rumple said.

"I feel awful for both of you," Mary Margaret told Killian.

"He didn't even try to listen to me!" Killian sobbed. "Only his eyes told him what to believe on that day. And he chose to believe that I betrayed him!" He continued sobbing.

Everyone in the room stayed quiet, wondering what would happen next, unaware that meanwhile, the spirit of Belle's unborn baby was chuckling to itself.

"A failed scheme, but a rather good one," it said. "The Evil One will definetly not regret the selection he made all those centuries ago. All those schemes that Fidget the Bat made, all that darkness he consumes inadvertently, will make him rise to the peak of his true destiny of evil. And when that comes, the Evil One will come to claim what is rightfully his, and soon everything will be consumed by darkness, starting with Storybrooke. How I'm going to revel watching the Batrishan Prince of Darkness put the universe in eternal chaos!"

 **The End**

(imitating the voice they make in the OUAT trailers)

Next, on ONCE UPON A TIME, Storybrooke welcomes an unexpected visitor from an unexpected realm…

Marianne: _Where's my husband? Where's my son…Marius?_

Rosetta: _You found the Fairy Queen Marianne!_

…a Queen is desperate to save her family.

Fairy Queen Marianne: _I must find a cure for my son's curse!_

Rumplestiltskin: _And at what price are you exactly willing to pay, dearie?_

Fidget the Bat: _I am currently uninterested in you situation._

Follow the adventure, when ONCE UPON A TIME meets STRANGE MAGIC, in THERE'S A STRANGE MAGIC IN STORYBROOKE, and follow the spin-off series retelling the history of Fidget the Bat in FIDGET, BATRISHAN PRINCE OF DARKNESS.


End file.
